The first job I ever had in the automotive business was during the summer of 1972 clerking at the Texaco purchasing department in Long Island City, New York.  I was a sophomore in college, working for my father Gerard Baumann, who was a tough boss.  My father was a buyer of  fleet vehicles, and my job was to do what I was told.

It was there where I began to learn how complex the automotive industry is, and since then, it hasn’t gotten any simpler. At the time I had a general idea of what was going on, but the complexities of fleet sales in comparison to retail sales seemed a bit daunting.  Now here I am some years later, and the complexities of retail sales in comparison to fleet sales have become nearly as complex.