WORKFORCE IN ACTION
motive recycling industry, which goes all the way to the 1970s. My husband, Don Egelseer (pictured with Rachel), and I, along with his brother, owned Smart Parts, a clean and organized, progressive late- model salvage and recycling facility. In that business, we found we needed a system to keep track of parts. This led to our involvement with AutoInfo in 1976. Jason Bacher and Howard Nusbaum were the developers and we helped them write the code spe- cific to our industry. The invoices, work orders, tags, etc., that are still used today were designed on our kitchen table by my husband and me. We had the first in-house Auto Info mini-system in ‘82 after tele- lines to New York became cumbersome. Leading to this, I was just a farm girl raised in Southeast Wisconsin, where I attended Christian schools, and ultimately received my BS at University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, and in 2005, a Master’s Degree in Training and Development at Northern Michigan, using the principles to redevelop/repur- pose vintage buildings in our little town. I always liked cars. My first was a ‘59 T-Bird; my second was a ‘65 Mustang convertible. I had my eye on Don in high school because he had a ‘52 white and red Ford convertible with a Cadillac engine.We married when I was 22, and he and his brother operated the Smart Parts salvage operation. For the family business which grew to 82 employees, I was the IT and HR director.
One obstacle I experienced through the early years was the lack of technical automotive knowl- edge, but then the computer solved that! But then a lack of computer knowledge became the chal- lenge, so I went back to technical college multiple times to gain those skills.
My advice to others is to work hard to be a clean, organized, and professional business with excellent customer service. Remember your priorities: God, Family, Work.
My most fulfilling career highlight is working with computer developers through the years to benefit the day-to-day operation of our business, and then being able to share it with our industry. This includ- ed parts look-up, analysis reports, and my own pilot programs of sharing parts data with insurers and repair facilities, along with a website that brought buyers from all over the world to our door back (in 1995 already!).
After selling Smart Parts to LKQ in ‘98, we helped build a LKQ plant in Utah in ‘99 and a distribution center in Michigan City, Indiana in 2000. By 2001, we retired to our lake home in Northern Wisconsin,
42 Automotive Recycling | November-December 2015
and launched a new business called Global Parts Solutions & Transportation LLC, where we sell highly requested light truck parts by the semi-load that we source all over U.S. and neighboring coun- tries. Our son Rod joined the company in 2007. Over the years, we have filled a need for quality recycled auto and truck parts by staying abreast of changes, laws, and permitting through the ARA. Our hobby is restoring vintage buildings in our quaint, historic town. Among the dozen or so prop- erties we have restored is a 1937 ballroom, 1899 Restaurant/B&B, and 1883 Victorian reception facil- ity. We are happy to report that all three were put on the National Historic Register last year for their sig- nificant architecture. Our old industry friends can come and visit us there for a great get-away to beau- tiful northern Wisconsin and the U.P. of Michigan.
Betsy Finnell Co-owner Hotlines, Inc.
Co-owner OEM Parts Corp.
www.PartsHotlines.com www.MrCycleParts.com 31 Years in the Industry
Kansas, so I grew up in the industry. In 1984, I joined my mother, Betty Finnell, to create and mar- ket a nationwide parts locator, DataNet, to recyclers across the country. In 1986, mom sold the business to AutoInfo. I joined the AutoInfo team and contin- ued to work with them until 1995, when they sold the business to Automotive Data Processing (ADP Hollander). I stayed with the ADP team until 2003 when Mike Vande Voort, owner of Hotlines, Inc., approached me about becoming his partner. I’ve been co-owner of Hotlines since. In 2013 Mike and I formed a second company, OEM Parts Corp, to directly help recyclers sell parts to the site visitors of our website,
PartsHotlines.com.
M
I grew up at the listening to my parents discuss the heavy challenges they faced each day as small business owners in this industry. I watched them continually battle diverse issues such as eminent domain, OSHA, and environmental impact. During this time, President Lyndon Johnson’s wife, Lady Bird, initiated her campaign against the “dirty junk- yards.” As you might imagine, my mom, being a “dirty junkyard” owner, took great exception to this. Mom wrote President and Mrs. Johnson describing all the work she had done to beautify their salvage
y parents owned A&A Auto Salvage in Topeka,
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