Asbury Autogroup, which says it is the third largest dealership group in the United States, has announced the appointment of Tom McCollum to vice president of F&I, reporting directly to Brian Kendrick, CEO of Asbury Autogroup.

McCollum will be responsible for overseeing all finance and insurance operations for the company including strategic relationships, regulatory compliance and improvement of same store performance. Importantly, he will provide leadership to Asbury’s dealership network in order to optimize local financial related opportunities.

“Tom’s highly developed F&I background and industry knowledge will help Asbury provide our dealerships with new, innovative customer focused F&I programs,” said Kendrick said. “This new position is part of our strategic focus to instill best practices for our dealership network. It is representative of the many synergies available to us in consolidating certain functions, which through Tom’s efforts, we expect will result in millions of dollars in incremental bottom line profits.”

McCollum joins Asbury with 25 years of finance and insurance experience. Most recently, he spent 20 years at Aon Corporation’s Resource Group, where he concentrated on enhancing same-store results with innovative, customer-focused finance and insurance programs. Aon is a holding company that is comprised of a family of insurance brokerage, consulting and insurance underwriting subsidiaries.

About Asbury Autogroup

Asbury Automotive Group L.L.C. operates 123 automotive retail franchises and bills itself as the third largest automotive retailer in the United States with pro forma 2000 revenues of $4.8 billion.

Asbury sells, finances and services foreign and domestic automobile brands. The company is pursuing a strategy consisting of focused acquisitions in high growth markets followed by aggressive integration.

The company is comprised of nine regional groups most of which are ranked first in their respective markets.

Additional information is available at www.asburyauto.com.