Five Finalists Selected for the 2025 Automotive Amplifiers Contest
Hailing from all over the United States and Puerto Rico, the finalists tackled difficult pain points dealerships face today
DAYTON, Ohio
Jul 21, 2025
The Reynolds and Reynolds Company today announced five finalists in its 2025 Automotive Amplifiers Contest. Each finalist will present details of their innovative best practice to the judges and attendees at Amplify 2025 in Dallas on August 19.
“With so many high-impact entries, the judges had a very difficult task selecting the five finalists. Each of these individuals and their best practices have the potential to make a difference across the industry in a meaningful way,” said Chris Walsh, president and acting CEO for Reynolds.
The five finalists are:
- Kamir Martínez Díaz – With a fragmented, manual, and inefficient document workflow, Martínez Díaz felt the need to find an alternative for the sales teams at Pepe Abad Auto in Cayey, Puerto Rico. She reduced internal document processing times, saved the company tens of thousands of dollars annually, and more.
- Chris Lasko – Lasko, of BMW of Pittsburgh, built a real-time dashboard that tracks every BMW and MINI sale by salesperson, showing who sold what, when, and whether it's delivered or pending.
- James Dieli – Dieli, of Beau Townsend Ford Lincoln, was looking for a proactive strategy to significantly boost revenue, customer loyalty, and operational efficiency in Fixed Operations, and he used the CRM to do it.
- Rick Sheppard – When faced with loss of service business due to lack of follow-up on declined services, Sheppard, of the Uftring Auto Group, found a way to reverse that and make positive gains.
- Chris Ponte – Ponte noticed the off-the-shelf fill rate was too low to be acceptable at Scranton Chevrolet and came up with a system to improve it in a big way.
Judging the contest are three industry experts:
- Sam D’Arc is the chief operating officer at Ziegler Auto Group and the host of the Daily Dealer Live podcast on the Car Dealership Guy network.
- Yuriy Demidko is the chief information officer for DP Fox Ventures and Fox Motors.
- Jeremy Reardon is the production manager at Westside Lexus and a former Automotive Amplifiers Contest winner.
Winning the contest includes a $5,000 donation to the charity of the winner’s choice, and a trophy recognizing them for their innovation or best practice.
“This year’s finalists will be addressing five unique problems, each solved by innovation or best practice,” concluded Walsh. “We’re excited to see which ones stand out the most and earn a victory at Amplify, where others facing those same struggles may be inspired to address them in similar fashion.”
About Reynolds
Reynolds and Reynolds is a leading provider of automobile dealership software, services, and forms to help dealerships deliver better business results and transform the customer experience. The company is headquartered in Dayton, Ohio, with major U.S. operations in Houston and College Station, Texas, Tampa, Florida, and Celina, Ohio, as well as operations in Canada, the U.K., and Europe. (www.reyrey.com)