First Up: July 2008

FACES OF NADA  
A look at key NADA staff

This is the 13th and final article in a series profiling key staff at NADA. These individuals work daily with NADA directors to advise on dealer priorities and policies, and to serve as advocates for dealers nationwide.

NADA president Phil Brady

NADA president Phil Brady believes auto retail doesn’t always get the appreciation it deserves. One of his key initiatives since becoming NADA president in 2001 has been to see that the leading dealers—such as the 600 who recently signed up for the NADA/EPA Energy Star program—get recognized. And when the Automotive Hall of Fame named Brady its 2007 Industry Leader of the Year—placing him in the company of such automotive icons as Lee Iacocca—he made a point of accepting “on behalf of all dealers.”

Brady calls his father and grandfather—who owned Chevy/Olds, and later Mazda, stores in Southern California—his greatest influences, thanks in part to their involvement with civic boards and charities. “The reality is that dealers have always been active in their communities,” he says, remembering how his father also sponsored the local Little League. (“I don’t know if I would have made the team otherwise,” he jokes.) Brady, who spent summers working at the store, learned early on that being a dealer requires handling several jobs within a job. “You have to have a pretty strong work ethic, and you have to like people.”

But Brady’s initial goal had been to go to law school, then enter public service. After earning degrees from the University of Notre Dame and Loyola University School of Law, he held a series of high-level government positions, including in the White House as deputy counsel to President Ronald Reagan and staff secretary to President George H.W. Bush. He also served as general counsel in the Department of Transportation and worked in the Department of Justice and with Congress.

Immediately before joining NADA in 1999, Brady was vice president and general counsel for the American Automobile Manufacturers Association. Crossing to the retail sid­e wasn’t difficult, he says, because “my parents and grandparents were dealers, and more often than not, dealers and manufacturers are on the same side of Washington issues.”

Brady served last year as chairman of Automotive Youth Educational Systems (AYES). Other board memberships include Northwood University, the Automotive Hall of Fame, the George Bush Presidential Library Advisory Council, and the University of Notre Dame Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace.