Alain Henry
After 31 years, and doing “everything under the bright sun” in auto finance, Alain Henry is moving on to a new role as Vice-President of Scotiabank’s Canadian commercial banking division.
In an interview with Canadian auto dealer, Henry said he has fond memories working in the industry, and loved working with OEMs, dealers and his teammates, but it was time for a new challenge. “After 31 years in auto, I’ve done everything under the bright sun, automotive related.”
Henry said Scotiabank launched an initiative to grow its business across other vertical industries and he was eager to take up the challenge. “The bank is focused on really growing our footprint as a financial institution across all verticals, not just auto or not just commercial. We want to replicate the success that we’ve had in auto.”
He said that with John Kontos stepping in to replace John Hiscock, the recently-retired head of Scotia’s auto lending operations, Scotia’s auto lending division was in good hands. “We went from being a very small player in the industry 30 years ago to being the most dominant player in this business. For me, my calling was going into Quebec and focusing on that market and to shoulder the strategy in the commercial banking side of the business.”
Henry, whose background is as a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA), said he enjoyed the challenge of growing the bank’s auto portfolio and working with auto dealers to win their trust and business.
“I’m a man of challenges. In working with the dealers, their resiliency resonated with me, and with the bank as well,” he said, adding that the bank had to pivot and adapt with dealers through various economic cycles and industry shifts. “We’ve just had a really good run.”
Henry said he learned a lot over the years from leaders in Scotiabank like Ron Porter and John Hiscock. “It’s the whole aspect of winning, wanting to win, and wanting to succeed. Those are my takeaways from past experience in auto finance that brought us the success we had.”
He said the key to winning was building deep relationships with OEMs, and dealers. “People in the automotive business are very passionate about what they do, and you can feel that passion as well. That passion is replicated on the auto finance side and dealing with dealers.”
When asked to share some of his favourite moments over his career in automotive, Henry said he couldn’t just narrow down a few. “In the 31 years that I’ve been with Scotiabank Automotive Finance, every morning that I woke up, I was always excited about the day ahead, always about new things that I would take on and the new challenges that we would work on as a team,” said Henry. “So every day was an amazing day for me.”
