Publication1 2021 Issue 1

7 KENTUCKY AUTO DEALER GETTING TO KNOWKADA CHAIRWOMAN KIMHUFFMAN You come from a car family, and the automotive industry would have been the obvious career choice. Did you always aspire to be part of the automotive industry? My degree was in communications. I wanted to work in the advertising field, and actually, I really wanted to be a travel agent and travel around the world. I had moved to Dallas for an entry- level job, and they were getting ready to promote me. My father was adamant about me not doing that, so he intervened. He knew that if I went any further, I would never come home. He wanted me to advertise for our company instead, so I went from working for an agency to working for the company. Is your entire family in the auto industry? My daughter is not, but everybody else is. • My nephew, Shane Huffman, is my partner. • My brother Dow was a partner too, but he had a very rapid cancer and passed away unexpectedly a couple of months ago. • My niece, Shannon, is our HR director. • My son, Daniel Wolford, is our vendor manager. He manages facility sites. • Another nephew, Kameron Huffman, is the general manager of our Nissan facility. Describe your educational background. What did you study? I went to the University of Kentucky and earned a degree in advertising. I started studying business, but I realized I was too creative. Advertising was a better choice for me. When I moved back fromDallas, I started the advertising department of our business and did in-house marketing and advertising. After 10 years, I retired to raise my family. I grew up in the era of women transferring their in-home work to out-of-home work. Working when you had small children was not quite acceptable. I went back for a business degree, but I had a 2-year-old and a 7-year-old. I am not a superwoman. I couldn’t complete it. Then my father passed away about 14 years ago. I came out of retirement and began working at the dealership. By then, my children were old enough to be sustainable on their own. That part worked well. But the job was very difficult. We had several locations, and each location had a different philosophy and was run differently. My father had been the glue. Having different approaches wasn’t sustainable after he was gone. CONTINUED ON PAGE 8