A longtime executive on the remarketing side of the car business is now with PAVE, which provides a photo-based automated vehicle inspection platform.

Mike Francis, whose background includes time with Alliance Inspection Management, SmartAuction and VW Credit, is now the vice president of sales with PAVE.

Francis’ most recent role prior to PAVE was as vice president of used-car sales at Alliance Inspection Management.

In the new role, Francis will lead sales and business development, particularly around companies with large vehicle fleets.

“As increasingly more vehicle acquisitions and purchases are completed online, we expect demand for PAVE’s automated inspection platform to continue to grow. Mike will be key to PAVE’s growth in this area given his depth of industry knowledge,” PAVE co-founder and co-CEO Brian Steinhauser said in a news release. “In addition, Mike’s experience in vehicle remarketing will enable us to better understand the needs of our dealer and commercial clients as they move more and more to heavy use of online methods to dispose of their vehicles.”

Francis added: “The growth opportunity for PAVE is exponential and I’m looking forward to bringing my knowledge of remarketing and the vehicle inspection landscape to make an immediate contribution to the team. Everyone is looking for the ability to automate the vehicle inspection process with condition reports that are accurate and reliable, regardless of the vehicle’s location. My focus is on ensuring PAVE gets into the hands of fleet managers, dealers, and vehicle remarketers around the world so they can benefit from the advanced vehicle inspection capabilities it delivers.”

Francis will be among the speakers on hand at Used Car Week, which is Nov. 14-17 at the Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego. 

He will lead a National Remarketing Conference workshop on “Automating Off-Lease Inspections.”

To learn more about Francis’ session and see the full UCW agenda, visit www.usedcar.biz/agenda.