{"id":6006,"date":"2025-06-25T11:46:54","date_gmt":"2025-06-25T16:46:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/?p=6006"},"modified":"2025-06-25T11:46:57","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T16:46:57","slug":"griffin-elected-niada-president-for-2025-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/griffin-elected-niada-president-for-2025-26\/","title":{"rendered":"Griffin elected NIADA President for 2025-26"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

NIADA members elected Don Griffin president of the association Monday during the Annual Membership Meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Griffin is the CEO and founder of CarHop in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Griffin has been on the NIADA Board of Directors since 2021, rising to president-elect last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have an incredible group of people on the board that support the industry, but I really think for me it’s just wanting to give back to the industry. NIADA is really the best way to contribute and help expand the voice for all independent dealers,\u201d Griffin said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Griffin brings a unique perspective to the president\u2019s role. After working as the Director of Operations for the South Dakota Attorney General, he began his career in the automotive industry in Lincoln, Nebraska, at a single Byrider BHPH lot. In 1996, he started CarHop with a partner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen we started, we were balancing credit cards and had very little money. We washed the cars, cleaned them, sold them and did everything else. It was truly a small business,\u201d Griffin said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The business has now grown to 33 lots across several states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI’ve been a small guy. I’ve been a bigger guy. The challenges of the businesses are essentially the same,\u201d Griffin said. \u201cThe way we go out and approach our customers is the same. As you spread across different markets, that creates more challenges for our business. It\u2019s been a great business for us. The best part is the ability to help our customers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Griffin begins his tenure as the industry adjusts to a changing regulatory environment in Washington, D.C., and across the nation. Griffin said it’s important for dealers to stay engaged as state attorney general offices and regulatory agencies become more active. He wants to see NIADA continue to grow its voice in advocacy after taking big strides in the past year with the hiring of the lobby firm Hance Scarborough in D.C., and naming Patrick O\u2019Brien the Director of Government Relations and Compliance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRegulatory changes and sometimes overreach have been a challenge for the industry. I think that’s why NIADA\u2019s efforts to help legislators and regulators understand the importance of our business and the challenges are important,\u201d Griffin said. \u201cIncreasing our advocacy is very important through grassroots lobbying, the political action committee or meeting face to face with legislators.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NIADA continues to grow its education offerings with new courses and boot camps slated to start and the return of the Certified Master Dealer program. With the new offerings on top of the 20 Groups and the NIADA Convention and BHPH Dealer Forum, Griffin said NIADA remains the best place for dealers to receive valuable education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Griffin looks forward to the opportunity to represent and meet dealers during his tenure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ll be listening to the other dealers, the partners, the state affiliates and trying to do the best job of representing their needs and building an association that’s the best voice for dealers,\u201d Griffin said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The NIADA Board of Directors approved by membership included:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President: Don Griffin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President-elect: Darla Booher<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senior Vice President: Dan Johnson<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Treasurer: Bentley Nolan<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Secretary: Chris Maher<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Region 1 VP: Donald Sullivan, Jr.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Region 2 VP: Jack Carter<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Region 3 VP: Otto Hahne<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Region 4 VP: Greg Zak<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Region 5 VP: Mark Weida<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Region 6 VP: Nick Markosian<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chairman of the Board: Michael Darrow<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NIADA members elected Don Griffin president of the association Monday during the Annual Membership Meeting. Griffin is the…\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6007,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"csco_singular_sidebar":"","csco_page_header_type":"","csco_appearance_grid":"","csco_page_load_nextpost":"","csco_post_video_location":[],"csco_post_video_location_hash":"","csco_post_video_url":"","csco_post_video_bg_start_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_end_time":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3,8],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6006","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-industry","8":"category-niada-news","9":"cs-entry","10":"cs-video-wrap"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6006\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}