SANTA MONICA, Calif. — Zag recently announced it has named a new company president and chief operating officer.

Automotive industry e-commerce innovator Chris Porch has joined the company in this role.

According to officials, Porch is a hands-on leader who excels at scaling businesses and achieving operational excellence, an expertise that is especially valued as Zag enters a high-growth phase and continues to build its affinity network.

As a student at Stanford University in the late 1980s, Porch was a founder of Trilogy Software Inc. which, during the 13 years he was with the company, amassed annual revenues of more than $250 million at its peak, executives reported.

In 2000, Porch was appointed by Ford to head up a joint venture between Ford and Trilogy that designed and produced FordDirect.com.

"Chris Porch adds an exciting new dimension and a storied record of innovation in automotive e-commerce to our leadership team," said Scott Painter, Zag founder and chief executive officer.

"Here's someone who, more than a decade ago, completely understood the vision and promise that technology could bring to the retail auto marketplace. We're counting on his leadership and insights to take us to the next level of success," he continued.

Porch added, "Zag has achieved tremendous success partnering with respected affinity organizations like USAA, Capital One Auto Finance and many others. The market has already validated Zag's main value propositions. Affinity partners are adopting Zag to complement their core businesses and to provide a tremendous service to their customers.

"Dealers work with Zag because the introductions we make are with more informed buyers who are ready to purchase today. Customers love the up-front, no-haggle pricing and the unique buying experience they get through the Zag platform and our certified dealers," he said.

Porch went on to say, "We've seen the first attempts to change auto retailing, and they didn't work. Zag has the right mix of business model, value proposition and technology to finally deliver on the promises of the last decade to radically improve car buying and selling."

For more information on the company, visit www.Zag.com.