Maria Soklis
One of the best known leaders in Canada’s automotive industry has a new role. Maria Soklis, joins DSMA as Executive Vice President, North America. DSMA, a North American Automotive Intelligence and M&A Advisory Service, made the announcement today in a news release.
Maria Soklis, past President of Cox Automotive Canada, and Brazil, and VP & COO of Kia Canada is respected across the automotive industry, says the DSMA press release, and is widely recognized for her accomplishments.
“We believe Maria will be a great fit with our team and an asset to our company, helping support us through this period of transformation and continued growth,” said Farid Ahmad, CEO and Founder of DSMA.
The company also made the announcement on LinkedIn, and praise is pouring in for the decision to add Soklis to the team. Since she stepped down from Cox Automotive, industry observers have been speculating about what her next move would be.
“DSMA has a huge opportunity to cement their position as the North American and Global leader in automotive M&A services. I am very excited to be joining the company at a time of significant change for DSMA, but also the changes coming to the automotive industry,” said Soklis. “I will be working to ensure the company navigates this period of industry transformation successfully and delivers the structured products and services a modern, agile professional services firm must deliver to stay relevant and at the top of their industry.”
DSMA says it has undergone tremendous growth in North America over the last few years and as with any committed and successful business, they are ensuring they have the right tools and resources to continue to deliver the professional services that DSMA is known for.
“DSMA is redefining what it means to be a Broker. In fact, we’ve banned the word “broker” from our internal vernacular because it doesn’t reflect what we do anymore,’ said Ahmad. “We engaged with our clients and listened to what and how they want our business to work to best support them. Those conversations have prompted us to invest heavily in support service functions that you simply don’t see at a traditional ‘brokerage,’ such as legal, financial, marketing and process management.”
Maxime Theoret, DSMA’s Managing Partner said: “In the last 3 years, DSMA made the decision to shift our business focus and invest significantly in human resource and infrastructure. Thus, enabling us to deliver the services that our clients told us they wanted. As such, we’ve tripled our staff across all support departments and project it will double again over the course of this year. With this growth in personnel, as well as the growth in traditional and non-traditional M&A business we’re seeing, we recognized that we need to add a highly experienced leader to help the executive team deliver the success we expect in the future.”
Look for a video interview with Maria Soklis and Farid Ahmad in our Canadian auto dealer enews next week.
