Jonathan Smoke – Chief Economist & Economic Advisor – Cox Enterprises

As a senior vice president, Smoke leads the organization’s effort to track and forecast key aspects of the economic environment in which Cox Enterprises companies compete, including macro-economic trends, regional market variation, consumer segments and buying power, housing, and transportation.

In addition to being a key advisor to the Cox Communications and Cox Enterprises executive teams, Smoke serves as the Chief Economist for Cox Automotive and is a member of the automotive leadership team. Smoke leads the company’s effort in developing deep expertise in all aspects of the automotive transportation industry, the economic factors impacting U.S. vehicle buyers and the automotive division’s many business clients and partners. For more than three decades, Smoke has focused on translating data and trends into relevant, actionable insights for the industries that represent the biggest purchases that consumers make in their lifetimes: real estate and automotive.

Prior to joining Cox Automotive, Smoke served as Realtor.com’s chief economist. Before that, he was the chief economist for Hanley Wood, a media and market intelligence company, and also served in a variety of roles at Beazer Homes, including senior vice president of strategy and innovation.

Smoke is an executive member of the board for the Atlanta Economics Club and is a member of the Conference of Business Economists, Harvard Industrial Economists and the National Association of Business Economists. He speaks at major auto industry conferences such as the NADA and NIADA conventions, Automotive News World Congress, and Used Car Week. His views on the economy and the auto industry are featured regularly in industry and national news outlets such as Automotive News, Auto Remarketing, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Bloomberg, and CNBC. Follow him on X @SmokeonCars to keep up with the latest industry insights. Smoke holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and religious studies from Rhodes College and a master’s degree in business from The University of Texas at Austin.

John Coles – Vice President – Data Science and Analytics ACV

Prior to joining ACV, Dr. Coles held many leadership roles, including Chief Technology Officer and Chief Product Officer of Bronze Trident Inc., a startup in Buffalo, New York, where he designed the business model and product plan for an automated tax challenge software.

Dr. Coles was recently recognized as an Auto Remarketing ‘40 Under 40’ Honoree (2021) and regularly speaks at auto industry conferences such as the Conference of Automotive Remarketing (CAR) and the International Automotive Remarketers Alliance (IARA) summer roundtable.

He holds a Bachelors of Science from the University at Buffalo, a Masters of Engineering from Texas A&M University, and a Ph.D. in Operations Research from the University at Buffalo.

Joseph Roesner – President – The Fontana Group, Inc.

Joseph Roesner is the President of The Fontana Group, Inc., a consulting firm with over 35 years of experience in analysis of the retail motor vehicle industry throughout the United States and Canada. He has an MBA degree with a concentration in Finance from the University of Arizona, is a Certified Management Accountant and an Accredited Valuation Analyst. Joe has participated in hundreds of studies concerning the addition, location, relocation or termination of dealerships, the non-approval of dealership buy-sell agreements, manufacturers’ systems for allocating new vehicles to dealerships, customer satisfaction measurement, economic damages and other topics. He has been acknowledged and accepted as an expert in the retail automotive industry before federal district court, state trial courts, various state administrative tribunals, and arbitration panels adjudicating disputes in the retail automotive industry.

Eddie Hale  – CEO – Neighborhood Autos

Eddie Hale has been in the automotive industry for over 35 years. In 1988 he started working for James Wood Auto in Decatur, TX focused primarily on the franchise side of the business. In 2006 he moved over to the BHPH operation for the auto group and became General Manager of Neighborhood Autos. Today he is the President and CEO of Neighborhood Autos LLC and Wise Credit LLC with 3 locations, and they sell over 1200 vehicle annually. Eddie is considered one of the foremost authorities when it comes to operating a BHPH operation.