As part of the inaugural Automotive Intelligence Awards, Cherokee Media Group is honoring a select group of outstanding auto industry analysts for their contribution to the knowledge base of the used-car retail, finance and remarketing industries.

Kicking off our series of podcasts with these first-ever honorees in the Automotive Intelligence Awards: Industry Analysts program is a conversation with Melinda Zabritski, head of automotive financial insights at Experian Automotive.

Zabritski shares how a product management role eventually led her to automotive analysis, the joy of “storytelling with data” in her job, what a typical day or week looks like, how she approaches auto conferences, how Experian gathers the data for its analysis and more.

Plus, she talks about her love of traveling and taking her camper van into the great outdoors. The full conversation can be found below.

Zabritski and her fellow honorees will be recognized in the April edition of the Auto Fin Journal publication and at the Auto Intel Summit, which is April 8-10 at the Embassy Suites in Cary, N.C.

Also included in the magazine and conference recognition will be the Automotive Intelligence Awards: Emerging Companies program, which will recognize emerging companies and entrepreneurs charging forward to make their mark on the used-car industry. These companies will be honored for improving a specific aspect of the business through technology.

In addition to respective luncheons at AIS recognizing these honorees, there will be panel discussions featuring representatives from the Automotive Intelligence Award recipients.

More details on those luncheons, panels and the full AIS agenda can be found here: Agenda | AIS & NRC 2025.