Sharon Faulkner
ACRA Executive Director
Sharon Faulkner has been involved in the rental industry for over 35 years. She was the President of the New York Vehicle Rental Association for many years and lobbied intensely to improve the adverse laws that affected New York operators. She has been a board member of each national car rental association for the past seven years. Sharon was most recently a Dollar and Thrifty franchise owner for over ten years located in Albany, New York. Sharon has been a featured speaker at many industry conventions and seminars. She has been the moderator for many successful car rental roundtable discussions and profit sharing meetings. She is a former founding member of the Advisory Board for Auto Rental News Magazine, where she has published a number of articles.Sharon has previously testified in the U.S. Congress to lobby for the repeal of vicarious liability that affected the car rental industry in a number of states. In 2005 vicarious liability was repealed on a federal level. Sharon and many others were instrumental in affecting this needed change for the car rental industry. In 2008 Sharon was awarded the Russell Bruno Award at the Car Rental Show for outstanding service to the car rental industry for her many years of involvement in legislative issues and education.In the nineties Sharon was the Area Manager in Upstate New York for Budget Rent A Car operating at Albany International Airport. She also opened a number of local locations for the Budget Corporation throughout Northeastern New York. She is certified as a Woman Owned Business in New York State. She was born in Albany, NY and is a graduate of Empire State College a division of the State University of New York at Albany.
Bob Barton ACRA President
U-Save Auto Rental of America, Inc.
Mr. Barton is the President and Chief Operating Officer of Franchise Services of North America Inc.( TSXV:FSN), the parent company of U-Save Car & Truck Rental, and its seven subsidiary Companies. Mr. Barton joined U-Save in July 2004 as Vice President of Sales & Marketing. Prior to this, Bob was responsible for the International Tour Business for Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group, and was a Vice President of Budget Group, Inc., the parent of Budget Rent A Car and its subsidiaries for the preceding 14 years. Mr. Barton is the current President of the American Car Rental Association, and the 2009 recipient of the Russell Bruno award as Car Rental Executive of the Year.Mr. Barton also sits on the Board of Directors of FTI-North America, Germany’s third largest tour operator, The Florida Language Center, The North Carolina Entrepreneurship Center at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, as well as, the Board of Advisors for the University of Tampa Business School. Mr. Barton has represented the car rental industry on the Congressional Travel and Tourism Caucus. His editorials on tourism and taxation have been featured in CNBC.com, Forbes.com, the Wall St. Journal, Automotive News, and newspapers around the Country. Mr. Barton is often called upon to discuss regulatory issues in the industry and by financial investors seeking to gain insight and a further understanding of the dynamics in the car rental and tourism sectors.
Joe Knight ACRA Vice President
Fox Rent A Car
Joe Knight entered the car rental business in 1970 with Ford Motor Company and was assigned to a group that set up the original Sears Rent A Car System. He has held various operational and fleet management positions with Ford Daily Rent A Car System, Budget and Thrifty. Knight owned and operated a business consultancy firm, Car Rental Concepts, and provided fleet and financing programs to independent rental companies for ten years. He founded and chairs the California Association of Independent Car Rental Operators and is active in legal and legislative issues that may affect the industry in California.
Rick Stevens ACRA Treasurer
Payless Car Rental
Mr. Stevens is the President of Payless Car Rental and is responsible for its company owned and franchised car rental operations. He has served as a member of the Board of Directors and Treasurer for the ACRA since its inception and served on the Board of Directors of the predecessor association, the Association of Car and Truck Rental Independents and Franchisees (ACTIF). Mr. Stevens is a member of the Board of Directors and Audit Committee Chairman of Teltronics, Inc., a publicly traded developer and manufacturer of electronic hardware and application software products for the telecommunications industry.From 1984 to 2000, Mr. Stevens held management positions at KPMG, PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Grant Thornton. He has a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Louisville and is a Certified Public Accountant.
Dick Radzis ACRA Secretary
Ace Rent A Car
President, ACE Rent A Car and ACE Rent A Car Reservations System. A graduate of the University of Illinois Richard has worked continuously in the car rental business since 1979. Past president of Illinois CATRALA, previous Board member and Officer of ACTIF, previous president of ACRA and currently serves on the Board of ACRA. ACE Rent A Car has rental operations in Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota and Texas. ACE Rent A Car Reservations serves 200 plus locations world wide as a provider of electronic reservations.
Frank Colonna
Triangle Rent A Car, Inc.
Having worked for a small hotel resort since he was 14, Frank realized he always wanted his own business. The beginning was doing it all, washing, renting, checking them in and selling and buying the cars.Started Triangle Rent A Car in June 1978. Triangle has grown to 28 locations in the Southeast US. Triangle is a local off airport neighborhood car rental company. Today we employ over 300 people and run a peak fleet of 5,000 units.
Graduate of St. Thomas Aquinas College, Sparkill NY.
Robert Klyce
Avis Rent-A-Car Licensee
Robert worked for a family owned company that started in the rental car business in 1918. His great grandfather started the company as an independent rental car company, Motor Livery, and in the 1930’s Robert’s grandfather purchased the Hertz business for the state of Alabama. In the mid 1970’s his father sold the Hertz business back to the corporation and purchased some Avis franchises.Robert started with the rental car business after graduating from the University of Alabama in 1968. Currently he serve as President and CEO of our company, Car and Truck Rentals, Inc. He currently operate seven Avis and one Budget franchise.Robert also serve as Chairman of the Avis Licensee Association and Chairman of the Avis System Advertising and Policy Committee and of the Avis System Advertising Trust.
Robert and his wife Barbara have been married for 42 years and make their home in Birmingham, Alabama.
Gordon Reel
Enterprise Rent A Car
Gordon Reel serves as Assistant Vice President of Government and Public Affairs for Enterprise Holdings, the most comprehensive service provider and only investment-grade company in the car rental industry. Enterprise Holdings operates Alamo Rent A Car and National Car Rental as well as its flagship Enterprise Rent-A-Car brand, and leads the car rental industry with more than a third of all airport business in the U.S. and Canada. Enterprise Holdings’ extensive network includes 7,800 neighborhood and airport locations worldwide. With annual revenues of $14.1 billion and more than 70,000 employees, Enterprise Holdings also owns and operates, through its regional subsidiaries, more than 1 million cars and trucks, making it the largest car rental company in the world measured by revenue, employees and fleet. Gordon oversees federal and state legislative activity – on behalf of all three brands – that relates to or affects the car rental, fleet leasing and car sales industries. He works directly with Enterprise’s local operating groups in the US and Canada to manage legislative and political issues as well as its lobbyists. Gordon also assists in managing Enterprise’s Political Action Committee. Prior to moving to Enterprise in July 2001, Gordon worked for the St. Louis Regional Chamber & Growth Association (RCGA), as the Director of Government Affairs, and also served in several capacities in the state legislature. Gordon is a St. Louis native and a graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia’s School of Journalism. He lives in St. Louis with his wife, Elizabeth, and three daughters.
Gil Cygler
Allcar Rent A Car
Gil Cygler, President of Allcar Rent A Car, was born in Brooklyn, New York where he still resides with his family. Mr. Cygler attended New York University School of Business, graduating in 1987 with honors. earning degrees in both accounting and business administration. Since his youth, Mr. Cygler held an interest in business, reading business books while in high school and spending many summers working along side his father in his automobile repair and service station, learning the importance of customer service, marketing and management.In 1979 Gil’s father, Samuel, started a side business of renting cars to customers who needed a temporary vehicle while their car was left for repair. Over the following summers, Mr. Cygler took an interest in the car rental business, learning the ins and outs of business management and learning from his father as well as applying what he learned at NYU to build what was to become Allcar Rent A Car.After graduating school, Mr. Cygler temporarily postponed law school and began work full time in the business, thinking he would remain at Allcar a year or two before attending law school. When Gil joined the rental business, there was one car rental location , at 1945 Utica Avenue in the Flatlands section of Brooklyn. In 1989, he was involved in the purchase and acquisition of a second car rental office in Bensonhurst which was followed by additional offices over the subsequent years. Over the years, what began as a job washing cars and answering phones grew to the current Allcar Rent A Car which has offices in all 5 boroughs and approximately 90 staff members.
Aside from many hours spent in the office, Mr. Cygler has followed in his father’s footsteps and involved himself in the communities in which Allcar operates, believing there is more to running a business than working in an office all day.
Mr. Cygler is currently on the Executive Board of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce and the Vice Chair of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce Government Affairs Committee. He also serves on the Boards of: The Brooklyn Chapter of the Boy Scouts, The Brooklyn Jewish Children’s Museum, Vice Chair of the American Heart Association Brooklyn Heart Walk, Canarsie Jewish Community Council.
One of Mr. Cygler’s most recent achievements was the successful advocacy of the New York State legislature to provide a choice to consumer’s who need to rent a car resulting from a car insurance claim. In August 2010, Governor Paterson signed into law the bill requiring insurance companies to provide a choice to their insured’s that need to rent a car. Gil had spent several years, advocating on behalf of the consumer and is proud to have worked with members of the State Legislature to have seen the bill signed into law.
Robert E. Muhs, Esq.
Vice President Government Affairs & Counsel
Avis Budget Group, Inc.
Bob Muhs currently serves as the Vice President, Government Affairs for Avis Budget Group, Inc. its subsidiary brands Avis Rent A Car System, LLC (“Avis”) and Budget Rent A Car System, Inc. (“Budget”). Avis Budget Group, Inc. is a public company and was formerly a subsidiary of Cendant Corporation prior to its divestiture. Bob Muhs joined the rental car industry in 1994 when he joined Avis Rent A Car System, Inc. as the Director of Government Affairs and served in that position until March 2001 when he was promoted to the position of Vice President, Government Affairs. In 2002 when Cendant Corporation acquired Budget Rent A Car System, Inc., Bob Muhs took on the responsibility of providing services to both the Avis and Budget rental car brands.
In his role with Avis Budget Group, Inc., Bob is responsible for all federal and state government relations activities for the Avis and Budget rental car companies which includes but is not limited to directing lobbying efforts before the United States Congress, the 50 states, Puerto Rico, Canada. Most of the concentration of government affairs activity for Avis Budget Group is in the domestic United States. In addition to directing lobbying activities, Bob is also responsible for oversight of all government inquiries.
In addition to his role as directing the companies legislative affairs, Bob is responsible for managing the commercial litigation team of Avis Budget Group, Inc. as well, handling all commercial litigation matters for the company as well as threatened litigation matters and personally handles those matters which are class actions relating to policy practices and procedures. Furthermore, Bob serves as the Chairman of the Company’s Diversity Committee charged which reviewing and investigating each and every customer complaint which alleges discrimination to ensure compliance with the company’s “zero tolerance for discrimination” policy and is a member of the company’s overall Diversity Committee.
In 2005, Bob was honored by Auto Rental News, the rental car trade publication, with its Executive Leadership Award. Bob serves as a Commissioner of the California travel and Tourism Commission and serves on the Commission’s Executive and Audit Committees, as the President of the Virginia Car and Truck Renting and Leasing Association, a member of the Board of Directors of the California Travel Industry Association. Bob also serves on the Board of Directors of Fueling California: A Consumer Alliance for Responsible Fuel Policy.
Prior to joining Avis in 1994, Bob was in private practice in a small boutique law firm in Queens County New York. Prior to practicing law, Bob served as the Senior Regional Coordinator for the New York State Assembly Minority Leader and as a Legislative Assistant to the New York State Senate Transportation Committee.
Bob is a graduate of Nassau Community College, St John’s University and Touro College, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center and is admitted to practice law before the courts of the State of New York and in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York and admitted as an in-house counsel in New Jersey pursuant to the New Jersey rules of court.
