The Alliance of Automotive Service Providers of Minnesota announced Friday that executive director Judell Anderson will retire at the end of the year after nearly 20 years of leadership.

Anderson will continue to serve as the administrator of AASP National.

A six-member search committee will oversee the transition and search for a new administrator. “The AASP-MN Board of Directors is committed to ensuring the continuity, stability and stature of AASP-MN into the future,” the organization wrote in a news release.

“Judell has been our leader, our champion and our ally for 25 years!” AASP-MN President Tom Archambault (BLVD Autoworks) said in a statement. “Her contributions to the automotive industry – most notably her support of automotive education & careers, along with legislative advocacy for independent automotive repair businesses – will be felt for years to come.  For those reasons, and many others, we are forever grateful for her leadership of the Alliance and wish her all the best.”

Anderson became AASP-MN executive director in 1996. “With Anderson at the helm, AASP-MN enjoyed major legislative victories, created a scholarship program, expanded member benefits and attained record membership,” wrote the AASP-MN, which today counts more than 700 automotive businesses and suppliers as members.

Anderson also in 2016 helped establish the Minnesota Careers in Auto Repair & Service initiative combating the technician shortage. It began as a $250,000, two-year campaign and 501(c)6 by AASP-MN and the Minnesota State Transportation Center of Excellence to get high schoolers, parents and counselors thinking about a career in the automotive aftermarket. The effort and its  CarCareers.org resource remain in place today, and AASP-MN called MNCARS “(p)erhaps one of the most important accomplishments during her tenure.”

Anderson also has contributed to I-CAR, SkillsUSA, high school and college advisory committees and local and national industry work groups.

“I am grateful to have served the members of AASP-MN for 25+ years, loving what I do every day and feeling like it made a difference,” Anderson said in a statement. “The job has always challenged me and the work, the people and the experience have been incredible.”

Anderson became AASP-MN executive director in 1996 after previously serving as the Sheet Metal, Air Conditioning & Roofing Contractors Association executive director and earning the rare Certified Association Executive credential in 1995. AASP-MN also credited her Friday for instituting “strategic planning” and for having “applied best-practice association management principles into the day-to-day work of the association.”

More information:

AASP-MN Executive Director Announces Retirement

Alliance of Automotive Service Providers of Minnesota, May 21, 2021

Featured image: Alliance of Automotive Service Providers of Minnesota Executive Director Judell Anderson. (Provided by AASP-MN)