CARMEL, Ind. -

On Thursday, KAR Auction Services announced three key appointments to the executive management team of OPENLANE for both the U.S and Canada.

KAR named Jason Ferreri as senior vice president in charge of commercial sales. The company gave added responsibility for OPENLANE’s dealer sales to Tim Zierden to go with his capacity as senior vice president of dealer services for ADESA

In Canada, KAR revealed Trevor Henderson has assumed the position of managing director for OPENLANE while retaining his ebusiness and business development responsibilities for ADESA.

Commenting on the executive appointments, Peter Kelly, chief executive officer and president of OPENLANE, said, “I’m delighted to have Jason, Tim and Trevor on the OPENLANE team.

“Given their extensive industry experience and expertise, I’m confident that they’ll be great additions to the OPENLANE management team, helping bring OPENLANE and ADESA closer together, so we can provide our institutional and dealer customers the best upstream, mid-stream and downstream solutions for their remarketing needs,” Kelly continued.

Previously, Ferreri was vice president of ebusiness sales and operations for ADESA with responsibility for U.S. private-label Internet remarketing initiatives.

Prior to assuming his ebusiness role, Ferreri was vice president of sales for ADESA where he focused on working with the company’s many commercial accounts.

Since joining ADESA in 2009, Zierden has led the company’s dealer services division, overseeing the growth in dealer consignment and related services across the ADESA U.S. organization.

Earlier in his career, Zierden held executive level positions with DealerTrack and the JM Family as well as CarMax.

The company said Zierden will continue to report directly to Tom Caruso, chief executive officer and president of ADESA, and will provide an aligned solution for all dealer activity at ADESA and OPENLANE.

Meanwhile, Henderson was vice president of ebusiness and business development for ADESA Canada where he was responsible for guiding the development and implementation of strategic online programs and services for  commercial and dealer customers.

Before joining the company, Henderson served in various product planning and strategic roles within a software development company focused on providing fleet maintenance and dealer service solutions.

Caruso chimed in, saying, “Dealer consignment continues to be a major focus at ADESA and with the addition of OPENLANE, I feel we’re better positioned than ever to serve our dealers with end-to-end remarketing solutions that include both an industry leading Internet platform as well as 70 physical locations throughout North America."

OPENLANE’s September Index

In other company news, OPENLANE also revealed its September U.S. Market Index, sharing how wholesale price movements and dealer interest were mixed last month.

The September index reading ticked higher from August to 104, the exact level it was a year earlier. The index has moved higher two months in a row now and has been above 100 each month since April.

When looking at specific vehicle segments, one pair increased while two others dropped month-over-month.

OPENLANE indicated car prices increased in September, ending 1 percentage point above August. The company said SUV prices also rose as the units moved 2 percentage points higher.

However, OPENLANE found minivan prices dropped 2 percentage points from August levels, while truck prices softened even more, dropping 6 percentage points.

As far as dealer interest goes, OPENLANE again discovered varying movements in September.

Analysts noted cars rose 5 percentage points in September and ended 6 percentage points above the same month a year ago.

However, they determined dealer interest in minivans during September decreased sharply by 31 percentage points versus the prior month, and finished 15 percentage points below year-ago levels.

Dealer interest in SUVs dipped, too, slipping 3 percentage points last month and ending 9 percentage points below September 2010 levels.

Finally, OPENLANE indicated dealer interest in trucks rose 5 percentage points versus August, and ended 14 percentage points above September of last year.