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By Counterman
In this aftermarketNews Executive Interview, Johannes Crepon, PDM Automotive Co-Founder & CEO, discusses the company’s platform, how it helps parts suppliers keep their product data up to date, how the use of AI technology makes e-commerce easier for suppliers and distributors, what the company has planned for this year, and more.
aftermarketNews: PDM Automotive provides commerce software for auto parts suppliers, manufacturers, resellers and distributors. Give us a brief overview of how aftermarket companies have found partnering with PDM most beneficial.
link hidden, please login to view Johannes Crepon: The genesis of PDM Automotive was rooted in my own experiences and challenges as the founder of Velocity Automotive, an ecommerce company that sells parts for American cars throughout Europe. At Velocity, we faced difficulties connecting with suppliers, managing product data, and ensuring brand visibility. Recognizing these industry-wide issues, I started PDM Automotive to increase efficiency in the automotive aftermarket through seamless connectivity between suppliers and retailers.
The PDM Automotive platform bridges the gap between auto parts suppliers, manufacturers, resellers and distributors. Manufacturers gain unprecedented transparency into where and how their brands are sold, enabling effective brand management and strategic decision-making. Resellers benefit from expedited access to up-to-date product data, reducing hurdles in acquiring and maintaining catalogs and allowing for agility in responding to market trends.
At its core, PDM Automotive fosters connections and streamlines information flow across the automotive aftermarket. By providing a platform that enhances transparency for manufacturers and accessibility for resellers, we’re creating an ecosystem that elevates the entire industry.
AMN: One of the hallmarks of PDM’s technology is allowing for a “seamless exchange of accurate and timely content across every facet of the automotive industry.” Tell us how PDM assists parts suppliers in keeping their product data up to date. How can the company help suppliers better adhere to ACES & PIES standards?
Crepon: While ACES & PIES has become the most relevant data standard in the Americas, its implementation across the industry has not been without challenges. The standard itself, although comprehensive, does not fully address the intricacies of data exchange, with many resellers interpreting and implementing the standard differently, leading to a fragmented array of data requirements.
Recognizing these challenges, our platform goes beyond merely supporting ACES & PIES standards; we enhance the standards with our proprietary connectors and algorithms, tailoring product data to meet the needs of every receiver. Suppliers can manage their data from a centralized platform, and we tailor this data to comply with the diverse interpretations and requirements of resellers across the industry. This process saves significant time and resources for suppliers and ensures that their product information is accurate, consistent, and easily accessible by resellers and end-users alike.
Our technology “puts ACES & PIES on steroids,” ensuring suppliers’ data is always optimized for every channel, leading to a more efficient supply chain, increased product visibility, and a better customer experience. is a testament to our commitment to innovation and efficiency in the automotive aftermarket.
Our ongoing development of proprietary connectors and algorithms signifies PDM’s dedication to continuous improvement. As the industry evolves, so do the standards and requirements for data exchange. PDM is at the forefront of these changes, ensuring our partners have the tools and support necessary to navigate the dynamic automotive aftermarket effectively.
AMN: PDM allows brands to sell parts anywhere—from Amazon to national retailers and local parts suppliers. How is the company creating sales opportunities for brands while minimizing channel conflict?
Crepon: Historically, brands struggled with over-distribution, diluting the brand image and causing inconsistent product presentation due to the lack of a cohesive strategy regarding distribution and authorized reselling partners. The rise of online marketplaces has further complicated this scenario, making it imperative for brands to actively manage how their products are represented across all channels.
PDM addresses these challenges by offering a platform that guarantees high-quality listings on marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, and Walmart, while adhering to Minimum Advertised Price (MAP) policies. This strategic approach allows brands to protect their interests across all channels, including traditional channels, which are often jeopardized by price dumping on online marketplaces. By ensuring that products listed on these platforms are presented in a manner that reflects the brand’s standards and pricing policies, PDM helps maintain the integrity of the brand across the digital landscape.
Additionally, our platform gives brands tools to actively manage their distribution, image, and product presentation, particularly important as consumer preference shifts towards online shopping. This allows brands to maintain control over their narrative and pricing.
With PDM’s technology, brands can navigate the complexities of modern retail, ensuring that their products are distributed in a way that supports their overall sales strategy while protecting the channels most valuable to them. This holistic approach to channel management is vital in today’s market, where visibility across a multitude of platforms is not just an advantage but a necessity.
AMN: The company uses AI to generate SEO titles, descriptions and marketing copy for products based on keywords and inputs in just seconds. In what other ways is PDM looking to use AI technology to make e-commerce easier for suppliers and distributors?
Crepon: While our use of AI to generate SEO-optimized titles, descriptions, and marketing copy in mere seconds showcases our commitment to leveraging technology for efficiency, it’s just the tip of the iceberg regarding our AI applications.
Our approach to AI technology is both strategic and discerning. Recognizing that AI’s strengths lie in its ability to process and optimize large sets of data quickly, we are mindful of its limitations, particularly when it comes to the precision required in our core data set—the richest automotive parts catalog in the industry. Accuracy is paramount, and while AI offers many opportunities, it is not inherently accurate. This understanding shapes how we integrate AI into our operations, ensuring that the reliability and accuracy of our core data are never compromised.
One key area where we leverage AI is in the normalization of complex, non-structured data that has accumulated in the industry over the last century. This task, daunting for human teams due to the sheer volume and variability of the data, is where AI shines. Our engineering team utilizes AI algorithms to sift through and organize this data into a coherent, structured format. This normalization process improves the quality of our catalog and enhances the efficiency and accuracy of data management for our customers.
Once we have perfected the data within the PDM catalog, we use AI to optimize it for specific channels. This optimization process involves adjusting product data to meet the unique requirements and standards of various e-commerce platforms, ensuring accurate presentations of our customers’ products, regardless of where they are sold. In doing this, we enable suppliers and distributors to maximize their online presence and sales potential across multiple channels.
We’re exploring other ways to integrate AI into our solutions to further simplify and enhance e-commerce operations. These include predictive analytics for demand forecasting, AI-driven recommendations for inventory management and automated customer service solutions to improve buyer engagement and satisfaction.
AMN: PDM was founded in 2017, and since it has grown exponentially. What does the company have in store for 2024? What can we expect from PDM in the next five years?
Crepon: In 2024, we’re set to expand our reach and capabilities. Our recent investment in upgrading our system’s underlying infrastructure has positioned us to take full advantage of the opportunities that lie ahead. This strategic enhancement ensures our platform is scalable, resilient and capable of supporting our future ambitions.
Our strategic priorities include developing more connectors, forging new partnerships, and expanding our catalog. Developing more connectors will broaden the scope of our network, making it easier for our customers to reach new markets and ensure accurate and up-to-date product information flows efficiently between manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, and retailers. We will add more partnerships; collaborating with other industry leaders and innovators is essential for driving collective progress and delivering comprehensive solutions to our clients.
Another key focus is the ongoing expansion of our catalog. Our goal is to offer the industry’s most comprehensive and detailed automotive parts catalog, serving as the single source for all our clients’ data needs. This growing catalog, enriched with accurate and detailed product information, will empower our clients to make informed decisions and optimize their operations like before.
Our vision for the next five years is to remain at the forefront of technology adoption in the industry, constantly exploring new ways to leverage technology to solve the unique challenges of our customers. Whether it’s through AI, machine learning, or other emerging technologies, our focus will be on providing solutions that make e-commerce easier, more efficient, and more profitable for suppliers and distributors.
AMN: What do you want the automotive aftermarket to know about PDM Automotive?
Crepon: PDM Automotive is not just about managing product data; it’s about increasing our customer’s market share in a $300 billion industry. While we are widely recognized for our Product Information Management (PIM) capabilities, our vision extends beyond managing rich catalog data; it includes a far-reaching ambition to connect every parts manufacturer with every buyer who needs or wants a part.
Our vision to connect every parts manufacturer with every buyer drives every innovation and decision at PDM Automotive. We aim to streamline buying and selling auto parts by facilitating connections and creating a more integrated and cohesive industry ecosystem. We are constantly exploring new technologies, developing new solutions, and forging strategic partnerships to enhance our platform’s ability to connect manufacturers and buyers in the most effective and meaningful ways possible.
We believe that achieving this goal will unlock the full potential of the aftermarket, creating opportunities for growth, innovation, and success for everyone. We invite you to join us on this journey, as we work to realize a future where every part finds its place effortlessly, benefiting manufacturers, buyers and the automotive community.
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By Counterman
Photo caption: From left, Claudia and Dr. David Fry (standing) are pictured as Dr. Fry receives the Wings of Freedom Award in 2022 in Bay Harbor, Michigan.
Northwood University announced the passing of former President David E. Fry, “a visionary leader, esteemed educator and beloved patriarch in the Northwood University family.”
Fry, who served as Northwood’s CEO from 1982 to 2006, passed away Tuesday, Dec. 19.
“Dr. Fry fostered Northwood University’s growth and progress as the longest-serving president and left an indelible mark on the institution,” reflected Northwood President Kent MacDonald. “Today, Northwood continues to advance the mission personified by Dr. Fry to develop free-enterprise leaders across America and around the world.”
Fry began his distinguished career as an economics professor with research and teaching interests in business, global economics and free markets. As president, he focused on creating an environment where this passion could be passed on to generations of students through the University’s philosophy, which values individual freedom and responsibility, earned success, moral law and the importance of free enterprise.
Fry proudly exemplified these institutional tenets of “The Northwood Idea,” the university said.
“Dr. Fry’s legacy includes leading Northwood through significant change, including growing the University academically from an institute to a university and opening the DeVos Graduate School of Management in 1993,” stated Kristin Stehouwer, provost, and vice president, academic affairs. “The more than 23,000 students who proudly graduated from Northwood University while Dr. Fry was leading from the helm – alumni who have gone on to impact private industry – is a testament to his leadership.”
The Early Days
At age 22, David Fry was part of an extraordinary faculty class recruited to Northwood in 1965. He became an intellectual descendant of Dr. V. Orval Watts, Northwood’s first legendary faculty member who gave shape and form to The Northwood Idea. Beloved in the classroom, Fry was named “Outstanding Teacher of the Year” by students in 1967 and 1968.
Fry was so talented that the school’s founders – Arthur and Johann Turner and Gary and Willa Stauffer – promoted him to an administrator role in 1969. In 1971, the founders gave him a mission to plant seeds of enterprise in Indiana, where he flourished. As much as he enjoyed teaching, he had an inherent gift to lead, inspire optimism, and influence different constituencies to share a common dream.
Along the way, he had taken time to establish solid academic credentials. Just as the school’s fortunes started to sour in the mid-1970s, Fry had fortuitously taken a sabbatical to earn his doctorate in business administration.
In a historic move, the Northwood Board of Trustees appointed Fry president and CEO of the Northwood Institute in 1982, making him one of the youngest college presidents in the United States.
Nancy Barker, a Midland resident who has served multiple roles with Northwood since 1971, including vice president of university relations, reflected on how he started as a young professor and eventually became one of Northwood’s greatest leaders.
“David evolved over the years. He was respected and had a wonderful relationship with the professors because he had been a faculty member and fully understood their important role in the classroom and for the success of Northwood,” Barker said. “David was a dynamic and challenging leader. He expected and encouraged those around him to do their best and gave them the support and opportunity to do that. His officers were a team who worked pretty much 24/7, as did he. David took the original Turner-Stauffer vision to a whole new level; his impact was international and yet still very personal.”
“All our lives were devoted to Northwood, this small growing institution, and Dr. Fry was our leader who paved the way.”
As involved as Johann Turner and Willa Stauffer were in their respective husbands’ work, so was Fry’s wife, Claudia. She is known as half the team that transformed Northwood from the early 1980s until Fry retired as its president in 2006.
“Claudia was always there for David,” reminisced Dr. Timothy Nash, Northwood vice president emeritus and director of the McNair Center for Free Enterprise. “She was the Rock of Gibraltar, the anchor in his life who played the more direct role in raising their two wonderful children, Daniel and Julie. Claudia has always had a strong intellect, passion, and interest in The Northwood Idea, global economics and business.”
“David has had a much better and more fulfilled life with Claudia by his side, and Northwood has a larger global footprint because of the two,” Nash added.
Expanding Academic Offerings
Under Fry’s leadership, Northwood experienced major academic expansions, including seeing Arthur Turner’s dream of a Florida campus come to fruition in West Palm Beach in 1983. He also fostered professional development partnerships with businesses and industry, the military, and community colleges.
Northwood began recruiting underserved students who needed access to various delivery methods and options to complete their degrees. Now known as Northwood Online, this was the start of Northwood’s Adult Degree Program, a delivery of content that enhanced access to higher education for adult learners who couldn’t attend college due to time constraints.
The DeVos Graduate School of Management was born in 1993 under Fry’s leadership. Since its beginning, the graduate school has attracted students worldwide. More importantly, its graduates have become entrepreneurs, leaders in the industry, mentors, and role models.
A University Well-Led, A Life Well-Lived
After facing many transitional and financial challenges, Fry and his team elevated Northwood to new heights. Campuses expanded, programs improved and grew and university status was achieved. Once back on solid footing, leaders focused on creative opportunities and innovations that lay ahead, distinguishing the Fry legacy.
“David’s great contribution was leadership,” stated Dr. Robert Serum, a long-time academic leader and innovator of international programs at Northwood, who is credited with navigating significant educational innovations for over two decades, starting in the late 1980s. “There are a lot of good managers out there, but there aren’t a lot of good leaders. David could walk into a room full of CEOs, all of whom had big egos, and before you knew it, they all wanted him as a friend. He was very popular wherever he went with faculty and staff, with other administrators and teachers, and especially with businesspeople. He epitomized what they believed in, free enterprise and every dimension of The Northwood Idea.”
Those who worked with Fry noted he had a brilliant mind and was a spell-binding speaker.
“His eloquence was so outstanding,” stated Dr. Marjorie Hohman, former board of trustee member, Distinguished Women honoree, and honorary doctoral degree recipient. “He was a people person, first. He was very good at connecting with people and holding their attention because he was such an eloquent speaker. He could stand in front of a crowd and captivate them because his command of the English language was superb.”
Hohman admired Dr. Fry’s influence on those he worked with. “The most outstanding thing about him was his leadership abilities and how he was able to get the best out of people,” she said. “He was such a mentor to so many.”
In honor of the tremendous progress made under Fry’s watch, the Northwood community came together to fund the David E. Fry Endowed Professorship to celebrate his retirement.
Recognizing his outstanding contributions to Northwood, in 2009, the University vested upon Fry its highest honor, Doctor of Laws, Honoris Causa.
Most recently, in 2022, Fry received the Wings of Freedom Award, created in honor of Northwood University’s own Dr. Dale Haywood. Northwood bestows this honor upon individuals whose lives have contributed to human progress, individual liberty, and economic and social prosperity.
“Dr. Fry’s legacy lives on at Northwood University, and we are forever thankful for his transformative role in our history,” stated President MacDonald. He continued, “Over my career, I have had the opportunity to research academic leaders around the globe and it is clear to me that Dr. Fry was one of the most transformational leaders in American higher education.”
Donors who would like to support Fry’s legacy can do so through a donation to the David E. Fry Endowed Professorship.
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By Counterman
The Business Technology Council (BTC), a council under MEMA Aftermarket Suppliers, announced that the deadline to apply for its Technology Innovation Award has been extended to Friday, Aug. 18.
The award recognizes technology-solution/service providers that introduce innovations that support, enhance and/or advance aftermarket processes.
Technology innovations must support one of the BTC’s areas of focus. These types of technologies can include:
Customer-Facing Technologies – Cataloging and product data, EDI/e-commerce, mobile, web services, e-tailing, RFID, QR codes, bar codes, POS data, data warehouses, S&OP Information Technologies – Cyber and network security, big data, BI, data analytics, cloud computing, IT outsourcing, ERP, MES, CRM After the application-submission deadline, finalists will be notified on Aug. 31. The finalists then will present their innovations during the BTC fall meeting on Sept. 18, and BTC members will vote on the winner.
The winner of the award will be announced at the 2023 Technology Conference, Oct. 8-12 in Atlanta.
Past winners of the award include Dorman’s “Where to Buy” platform (2022), VizSeek’s Visual Search (2021) and OptiCat’s Automated Loadsheets (2020).
“We have received an incredible response so far for the Technology Innovation Award and wanted to ensure everyone had ample time to get their applications in,” said Chris Gardner, senior vice president of Programs & Technology at MEMA Aftermarket Suppliers, about the decision to extend the application deadline. “We look forward to reviewing the applications and recognizing the top innovation.”
To apply, visit
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