Each newly appointed manufacturer representative brings different perspectives to the automotive aftermarket industry and CAWA
Sacramento, Calif.—Three manufacturer colleagues have been appointed to CAWA’s Manufacturers’ Advisory Council for 2024. They are:
- Erick Esparza of Mevotech
- Jimmy Ji of CTR America, and
- Zefang Zheng of ADD USA, Inc.
During the appointment process, Young Suhr Jr., CAWA Chair of the Board of Directors, said, “I am looking forward to the service of these manufacturer representatives as they bring different perspectives to our industry. We appreciate their willingness to make a commitment to the industry and its trade association out West. CAWA looks forward to their participation and contributions in assisting the association in achieving its goals as an effective and valuable automotive care industry organization.”
Erick Esparza is the Western Sales Director for Mevotech with the responsibility of working with automotive warehouse distributors in all Western states supporting their chassis and hub categories. Prior to joining Mevotech, he was with First Brands Group for several years as the Sales Director for the same Western states managing their portfolio of brands in multiple categories.
Prior to that Esparza spent time as the Aftermarket Division Manager for Idemitsu Lubricants, helping the company establish the brand in the U.S. automotive aftermarket. He started his automotive aftermarket career with Innova Electronics as their National Sales Manager, primarily working with automotive retailers. Esparza holds a college degree in Business Economics from California State University, Long Beach and lives in the city of Lake Elsinore with his wife and two children.
Jimmy Ji is currently the General Director of CTR America after having established the company as a United States corporation. As such, he performs high-level administrative, technical and professional work in directing and supervising the administration of the day-to-day management of the company.
Ji has served in many capacities at CTR America including Sales Manager in North America; Sales Manager in Russia and Eastern Europe; and Sales Manager in the Middle East and Africa. He has a Bachelor of Economics from the Kwangwoon University in Seoul South Korea.
Zefang Zheng is the CEO of ADD USA Inc., and takes care of the global category and marketing for the company. After earning a Bachelor’s Degree in Science from the University of Oregon, his journey began as a Territory Sales Manager for an aftermarket auto parts distributor. He also has had experience as an Operations Manager for an auto parts retailer store.
Since 2018, he has held various positions of increasing importance and responsibilities at ADD including sales, marketing and category management. In his current position, he will be responsible for the leadership of ADD North America and the stewardship of their customer relationship experience.
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