Leo Drew, 20-Year Veteran of General Motors, Joins Kelley Blue Book

Kelley Blue Book and kbb.com, America's most trusted vehicle pricing, values and information resource, announces the appointment of Leo Drew to the company as executive vice president of customer sales & strategy. Additionally Drew will take a seat on the company's executive leadership team.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20060211/LASA002)

In his new position, Drew will focus on leading Kelley Blue Book's overall customer segment strategy and determine how the company can leverage its relationships with manufacturers, dealers, online partners, financial institutions and governmental agencies to accelerate growth. His role includes working with Kelley Blue Book's marketing and technology teams to develop, expand and promote industry-leading products and services that provide greater value for the company's partners and customers.

"Leo brings a very broad and deep level of experience to Kelley Blue Book that stretches across the automotive industry -- from optimizing dealership operations to maximizing the opportunities of the Internet and e-commerce," said Paul Johnson, president and publisher of Kelley Blue Book. "He's coming on board to lead an aggressive growth strategy across multiple business units."

Prior to joining Kelley Blue Book, Drew was the director of customer relationship management (CRM) strategy & development for General Motors. Drew's responsibilities included leading the development of GM's U.S. Strategic CRM framework and the development/deployment of new CRM capabilities, including GM's online shop/buy initiatives as well as new database marketing capabilities. The Strategic CRM Framework supports GM's core vehicle brands, other business units such as OnStar, GMAC and GM Card Services as well as the integration of all available customer channels, including GM's dealer distribution network.

He moved to Corporate Marketing beginning with a special assignment in California working on a comprehensive marketing initiative to deliver increased sales and market share for General Motors. This effort led to the creation of the first online vehicle-buying service from a manufacturer, GMBuyPower.com. GM BuyPower was launched nationally with industry leading business-to-consumer capabilities resulting in strong consumer acceptance and significant sales results for GM and its dealers. GM BuyPower was the recipient of many prestigious awards including, Forbes and Smithsonian. Key to the GM BuyPower service was the development of in-dealership training and processes to effectively leverage this new online sales opportunity. Drew also worked on the General Motors leadership team in the Western Region working with regional dealers and managing the distribution, training and new capability deployment for their dealer network.

Drew received his undergraduate degree in marketing from the University of Central Florida and his MBA from Pepperdine University in California.

About Kelley Blue Book (kbb.com)

Kelley Blue Book's kbb.com is America's most used and trusted vehicle pricing, values and information resource. The top-rated Web site provides the most up-to-date pricing and values for thousands of new and used vehicles, including the Blue Book® New Car Value, which reveals what people actually are paying for new cars. Since 1926, car buyers and sellers have relied upon Kelley Blue Book for authoritative and unbiased information to make well-informed automotive decisions. The company also reports vehicle prices and values via products and services, including the famous Blue Book® Official Guide and software products. Kbb.com has been named the No. 1 automotive information site by Nielsen//NetRatings and the most visited auto site by J.D. Power and Associates seven years in a row. No other medium reaches more in-market vehicle shoppers than kbb.com; one in every three American car buyers complete their research on kbb.com.

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SOURCE: Kelley Blue Book

CONTACT: Media, Robyn Eckard, +1-949-268-3049, or mobile,
+1-323-547-5102, reckard@kbb.com

Web site: http://www.kbb.com/