OptiCat LLC, a leading supplier of cataloging data services for the automotive and heavy-duty aftermarket, has appointed industry veterans Don McEntee as director of sales and marketing and Kyle Johnson as director of business development.
McEntee has over 35 years’ experience in the aftermarket and comes to OptiCat from SKF where he was vice president of marketing for their vehicle service market division. Prior to that, he held several sales and marketing positions in his career, including roles with UBP, Ampere, Modine and TRW.
McEntee is active in both the Automotive Aftermarket Suppliers Association (AASA) and the Auto Care Association (ACA). He was deeply involved in the AASA Know Your Parts campaign and was one of the original champions of the Heavy Duty Data Standards initiative, which is now managed by ACA.
“I am thrilled to be part of the OptiCat team, and I look forward to helping assist our customers and channel partners sell more parts,” says McEntee.
Johnson has over 27 years’ experience in the aftermarket and comes to OptiCat from SupplierGateway where he was chief operating officer. Prior to that, he was vice president/area managing director for Solera Inc. and before that vice president of strategic accounts for WHI Solutions.
Johnson brings extensive aftermarket data experience to OptiCat. He served on the ACA Technology and Standards committee for eight years and was one of the original data architects of the ACES data standards. He also created the original WHI/eBay catalog data architecture and has data integration experience with CSI/MacDonald, Epicor, Motor, AC Delco and GM OE.
”OptiCat represents a perfect fit for me,” Johnson says. “The culture, the mission and the toolsets are in lockstep with everything that I am passionate about. I couldn’t be happier with this new opportunity.”
“Don and Kyle are highly regarded industry veterans, and I’m excited to be bringing on these two accomplished and brilliant friends to expand the depth and breadth of our team,” says Bryan Thueson, chief operating officer of OptiCat.
“In that OptiCat’s mission is “Helping You Sell More Parts!”, we are elated to have these talented new partners join our team. I’m confident they will significantly contribute to the success of our customers and to our ability to fulfill our promises to our marketplace,” says Charley Johnson, chief executive officer of OptiCat.
OptiCat (www.OptiCat.net) provides a network of product data validation, distribution, and assessment programs designed to optimize suppliers' data and its distribution to the marketplace. These programs help suppliers improve trading partner relationships, eliminate catalog errors, reduce information processing costs and speed cataloging information to global markets in near real time, “Helping Everyone Sell More Parts!” OptiCat also maintains the OnLine Parts research catalog at www.OptiCatonline.com (now featuring “attribute search”), as well as its OptiCat Global Catalog (featuring worldwide data) and its Spanish Language, Mexico Catalog, both of these in cooperation with TecAlliance GmbH.
