The 2023 Time Dealer of the Year Award Nominee is Mark Tulley New Hampshire Dealer Wins National Recognition for Community Service and Industry Accomplishments The nomination of Mark Tulley – owner of Tulley Automotive Group, a BMW, Buick, GMC and Mazda dealership in Nashua, New Hampshire – for the 2022 TIME Dealer of the Year award was announced by TIME. Tulley is one of a select group from across the country who will be honored at the 106th Annual National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) Show in Dallas, Texas Jan. 27, 2023. The award is one of the automobile industry’s most prestigious and highly coveted honors, and recipients are among the nation’s most successful auto dealers who also demonstrate a long-standing commitment to community service. Tulley was chosen to represent the New Hampshire Automobile Dealers Association in the national competition – one of only 48 auto dealers nominated for the 54th annual award from more than 16,000 nationwide. “Seeing my employees grow in this business and be successful is very rewarding,” nominee Tulley said. “I know our employees are our biggest asset, and I am a believer of promoting from within.” A 1978 graduate of Nashua High School in Nashua, Tulley started working at his family’s dealership, Tulley Buick, at age 14. The store was founded by his father, Vincent Tulley, in 1957. “I started out sweeping the parking lot and shoveling snow off the roof,” he said, learning the business from the ground up. By age 22, he was selling cars and was soon promoted to sales manager, where he gradually began taking on more responsibilities. “When I was about 28 years old, I ordered all vehicles, appraised vehicle trade-ins, placed all advertising with newspapers and radio stations, hired and fired salespeople,” he said. “I have always been a workaholic, which I guess I get from my father and going through a recession in the early 1990s, which put our business in jeopardy.” His father had recently retired, and when the recession hit, Tulley assumed multiple jobs at the dealership as his family was forced to lay off employees. “Things were so bad, we were selling used cars just to make payroll,” he said. “There was no way I was going to let the store go under, so I worked 70-plus hours per week until things got better and I could hire back employees.” Today, the dealership continues to grow and thrive. He owns Tulley Automotive Group with two of his brothers, Vincent and Bryan, and the three also oversee BMW of Manchester in Manchester, New Hampshire. With many years of experience and unique insights into the ups and downs of owning a dealership, Tulley recognizes the shortfalls in the retail auto industry and has devoted his time and resources to helping solve those issues. “I believe that if we don't get involved in helping and preparing children for a career in the automotive field, we will not survive down the road,” he said. To that end, Tulley began working with his local high school 20 years ago to implement an automotive department. The Nashua High School North automotive technology program provides hands-on training in troubleshooting, repairing and maintaining vehicles and work-based learning. Recently, he helped breathe new life into the program by providing a new vehicle for the students to experiment on and revamping the workspace. He remains an advisor to the program. D R I V E 5
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