Wheels, Donlen integrating client benefits with Executive Leadership Team announcement

The integration of Wheels and Donlen - which now boasts a combined fleet of 525,000 vehicles in the US and Canada- has progressed with the announcement of their Executive Leadership Team (ELT), a dedicated group of nine leaders aimed at bringing the best of both organizations together and creating a stronger and more innovative fleet management company.

The merging of the two companies will bring benefits to both Wheels and Donlen clients, according to Laura Jozwiak who is Senior Vice President of Sales and Client Relations.

For example, “Wheels has a reimbursement product and Donlen has a garage management program, which we can offer to both client bases. We are currently working toward integrating these types of benefits and more. Our clients are excited about the new possibilities,” Ms. Jozwiak told Global Fleet.

For now, the two companies are operating separately but will become one. A joint advisory board has been assembled and are tasked with merging and synergizing technologies, business platforms, overall client benefits, among others. "We want to take our time to do things right. As such, we are intentionally not binding ourselves to a specific timeline for full integration,” said Ms. Jozwiak.

“Combining companies of this size and complexity takes time, and we want to ensure we do it in the best and most thoughtful way,” CEO Shlomo Crandus said in a special ELT announcement release which was sent out to Wheels and Donlen clients.


Meet the Executive Leadership Team

Shlomo Crandus was named Chief Executive Officer (CEO) on October 29, 2021 after beginning his career at Wheels 16 years ago. He is responsible for leading the overall strategic direction for the combined Donlen and Wheels businesses and bringing together two best-in-class fleet management companies to drive growth and revenue opportunities. Shlomo proudly continues the company’s legacy of passionately striving to bring clients success and supporting a high performing and ethical business culture. Prior to becoming CEO, Shlomo was the Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer (CFO), where he was responsible for leading the accounting, financial reporting, billing, tax, treasury, credit and risk management, legal compliance, financial planning, collections and accounts payable functions. Prior to Wheels, Shlomo held several leadership positions at Transamerica Finance Corporation and KPMG.

As President, Tom Callahan is an accomplished executive who brings invaluable perspective and customer focus to Donlen. Tom will work closely with the CEO and lead all marketing, communications and other special projects including certain go to market strategies. His attention to employee satisfaction, customer retention and corporate culture ensure that our customers remain completely satisfied with our performance. Under Tom's leadership, Donlen implemented a number of ways to measure and validate our approach to customer relationships, earning Donlen unprecedented year-over-year customer satisfaction and retention results. Tom has deep roots in the automotive and commercial fleet industries, holding several leadership positions at Ford Motor Company and several global leadership positions at GE, including running the GE Fleet commercial team in Japan, President of GE Fleet in Australasia, and Managing Director of Sales Finance for GE Consumer Finance in the UK.

Jim Wohlever serves as Senior Vice President of Customer Experience, in this role Jim focuses on fostering a deeper intimacy with our customers and better aligning processes and deliverables to our client’s expectations. Throughout his career, Jim has led customer-focused initiatives that define corporate goals in terms that can be understood by customers, and he has helped align functional areas of companies to better deliver on customer commitments. Prior experience includes senior leadership positions in Marketing and Insurance products at GE, Account Management focused on working with the clients to develop programs to improve retention and growth for Ceridian, and most recently, President and COO of Roadside Protect, a specialty roadside assistance administrator.

As acting Chief Operating Officer, Ahsan Rahim leads the companywide Product Management, Global Product and Operations departments. He also oversees critical day-to-day business functions including vehicle acquisition, remarketing, truck consulting, compliance services, fuel, driver call center, procurement, and quality. Ahsan has over 20 years of experience in business-to-business technology and service businesses. Prior to joining Wheels, Ahsan spent 12 years at Truven Health Analytics as Senior Vice President and head of Business Operations, responsible for product strategy and commercialization, pricing, marketing, and sales operations.

As Chief Information Officer, Tim O'hara leads the Information Technology departments. His teams are responsible for developing and managing our client-facing systems, internal networks, business continuance applications, IT security and systems infrastructure. Tim has 30 years of leadership experience in IT application and infrastructure strategies, enterprise architecture optimization and e-business integrations for multi-billion-dollar enterprises. Prior to joining Wheels, Tim spent 19 years at Essendant, Inc., where he rose to the rank of Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer. As CTO, Tim was responsible for overall IT strategy and initiatives for all Essendant business units.

As Acting Chief Financial Officer, Eric Hiller oversees the Corporate Finance, Accounting, Credit, Risk Management, Tax, Reimbursement Operations, Internal Controls, Compliance, and Treasury functions. Eric joined Donlen in 2012 from the Hertz Corporation, where he was the Senior Director of Global Financial Planning and Analysis. In that capacity, he led the Hertz Global FP&A team in the development of financial projections and analyses to drive strategic business growth with a focus on continuous financial and operational improvement. During his 16 years with Hertz, Eric held several other key leadership financial roles.

As General Counsel, Ilese Flamm leads the company’s legal function. Ilese’s client focused approach to legal topics and fleet expertise will benefit clients and help shape our combined companies’ strategic direction on risk management. Ilese’s wealth of senior corporate legal and compliance experience includes almost 25 years with companies such as The Walt Disney Company, in which Ilese held the role of Senior Counsel, Wyndham Worldwide, where she served as the Executive Vice President and General Counsel of RCI, and Shell Vacations as the Executive Vice President for Legal Affairs.

As Chief Human Resources Officer, Mary Formosa leads the Human Resources department, which includes HR strategy, employee relations, talent acquisition, talent management, engagement, organizational design and effectiveness, compensation, benefits, HRIS, internal communications and diversity, equity and inclusion. Mary also leads our Facilities and Mail Center functions. Mary has more than 25 years of human resources, labor relations and global human resources experience. Prior to joining Wheels, she was Vice President of Global Products at World Kitchen, Vice President of Global Operations at Navistar and held several leadership roles at Tribune Company.

For more on the footprint of automobile leasing and fleet management companies worldwide (before this merger), download the latest Global Fleet e-book regariding the matter.   

Photos, courtesy of Wheels-Donlen