Automotive Ventures welcomes Gordon, Lafferty & Reed to fill key roles

In March, Automotive Ventures launched an investment fund that focuses on driving strong returns for dealers who invest in early-stage dealership technologies.

And Tuesday, the automotive technology and mobility venture capital firm added three industry veterans to sustain that project as well as the others in its portfolio.

Andrew Gordon, Adam Lafferty and Brian Reed now are all part of Automotive Ventures’ leadership team, serving in a variety of development and operational capacities.

Automotive Ventures explained through a news release that these latest appointments help the company further connect investors with emerging automotive and mobility tech companies to fund the next wave of transportation innovation.

Gordon has been appointed head of value creation at Automotive Ventures.

Prior to joining Automotive Ventures, he was a third generation Honda dealer and the former founder and chief executive officer of DealerScience, which was acquired by TrueCar.

A 25-year automotive industry veteran, Gordon works closely with dealer groups throughout the U.S. to identify solutions that solve key challenges dealers face today, and to guide them as they invest in emerging technologies that are transforming the future of the industry.

Lafferty has been appointed vice president of operations at Automotive Ventures.

The firm described Lafferty as a longstanding technology operations leader and entrepreneur. Formerly, Lafferty served as senior director of strategy and operations for TrueCar and was part of the Center of Operational Excellence for Cornerstone Technologies, a cloud-based people development software and learning tech company.

According to the news release, Lafferty will manage Automotive Ventures’ strategic operations to prepare the company to scale up and grow its investor and portfolio company base.

Reed has been appointed operating partner of Automotive Ventures to help the company work closely with its investors, better identify companies for investment and accelerate their adoption post-investment.

Reed is founder of Digital Auto Advisors, which offers automotive technology consulting and intelligence services to the industry. Formerly, he was the cofounder and CEO of Intersection Technologies and F&I Express, which were acquired by Cox Automotive.

In 2006, Reed was named J.D. Power’s Pioneer of the Internet for establishing auto finance on the Internet.​ He’s an advisor and board member for several automotive technology organizations.

“Automotive Ventures is committed to hiring the best people to support our investors and entrepreneurs,” Automotive Ventures founder and CEO Steve Greenfield said in the news relase. “I’ve been lucky enough to have worked with Andrew, Adam and Brian in the past, and I respect their leadership skills, value their insight and welcome their vision and ingenuity to support our limited partners and help our portfolio companies grow.

“I’m honored that they’ve decided to join the Automotive Ventures leadership team and I look forward to driving the company forward together.”

Along with the Automotive Ventures DealerFund, the company recently introduced its Mobility Index, which tracks the health of publicly traded mobility companies, weighted by their market capitalization.

And Greenfield also was with a variety of entrepreneurs during this year’s Auto Intel Summit, moderating a panel discussion with some of the 2022 Emerging 8 honorees. If you’re a Cherokee Media Group Premium Member, you can listen to the conversation via this webpage.