Specialty Equipment Market Association President and CEO Chris Kersting will wrap up his more than 30-year tenure with the association on Jan. 31 and hand off the helm to interim co-CEOs Bill Miller and Mike Spagnola.

Kersting joined SEMA in 1996 to lead the organization’s Washington, D.C. office as vice president of legislative and technical affairs. He began as CEO in 2002. 

In a press release announcing his retirement, Kersting called his career with SEMA “three decades of exciting and fulfilling work.”

“Together with our talented SEMA team, we’ve built a truly innovative portfolio of services and benefits – and certainly one of the greatest trade shows in the world,” he said. “You couldn’t ask for a better career.”

Kersting told RDN the SEMA Show is “about helping the industry find new opportunities and grow their businesses and careers.”

Kersting and his leadership team worked with the Society of Collision Repair Specialists (SCRS) to further develop the collision repair and refinish segment of the annual SEMA Show, leading to the first launch of the Repairer Driven Education series at the 2010 SEMA Show. The first iteration spanned two days of the Show, offering relevant topics targeted specifically for modern-day collision repair professionals.

The program matured over the years into a five-day series of educational opportunities including the first OEM Collision Repair Technology Summit in the 2014 Show, the IDEAS Collide Showcase at the 2018 event, and in 2020 saw the introduction of an online element, which was retained by SCRS in 2021, and is available at rde.scrs.com. The evolving segments and collaboration between SCRS and SEMA provide dedicated educational opportunities to the collision repair audience during the SEMA Show each year.

“Bringing the collision repair industry into the Show made it possible for exhibitors and attendees to see and discover new cross-over business opportunities,” Kersting said. “That synergy has worked out well for everyone.”

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