About Our President

"We have the experience to help and to share resulting in positive growth ..."

Our President, Ray Fisher, has a diverse background within the automotive repair industry.  Ray's journey began as a porter in a new car dealership, promoted to be a parts counterman where he eventually became an assistant parts manager at a large volume Cadillac dealership and also oversaw their B2B wholesale business. 

Opportunity arose for Ray to expand his skills in the collision repair industry.  At the age of 28, he became a collision repair manager and eventually moved to a local Dodge dealer.  The family made the decision to move across state where Ray continued as a collision repair manager at another Dodge dealer.  Within 3 years, Ray oversaw the transition from a small five stall facility of just over 2,000 sq. ft. to a new State-of-the-Art almost 10,000 sq. ft. facility.  "I had a great team who shared the vision of our growth and they helped me obtain many 'firsts' in our market.  The training, the organization and the disciplines that my team developed early on made it all happen and we just thirsted for more opportunities from the business.  This growth required us to work with our dealer customer base, the used car department for reconditioning, the new car department for various delivery needs, our new fleet accounts all while coordinating efforts with our parts and service departments."

Ray continued to grow by becoming involved with the local Inter-Industry Conference on Auto Collision Repair (I-CAR) committee, eventually becoming the District Chair for the West Michigan I-CAR committee.  Ray also became involved in the local trade association, West Michigan Bodyshop Association (WMBA) where he eventually was elected to serve as Vice President (twice), became President and Chairman while serving.

Seeking expertise, a local law firm sought out Ray to serve as an expert witness and later had him take the lead role during depositions, with the firm winning a settlement for their clients.  Ray made the decision to move into a new role and was hired by the affiliate Automotive Service Association of Michigan (ASAM) as their Vice President to assist their collision members and grow membership.  In 2010, the President retired and the ASAM Board of Directors offered Ray the role of President effective January 1, 2010 which he accepted.  In his new role, Ray listened to the challenges of the past, including the lack of updates on the Motor Vehicle Service & Repair Act of 1974 (MVSRA - shop and technician licensing) along with other issues.  During that time, the environmental protection agency was introducing federal regulations on refinishing vehicles, and Ray called a meeting with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and a paint company that resulted in a modification to the ruling that would have banned certain spray equipment that achieved the goal of the regulation, saving the industry and its technicians tens of thousands of dollars.  During his reign as ASA Michigan President, Ray successfully updated the MVSRA, reversed a near century old law that was unique to Michigan which required repair facilities to charge sales tax on returned cores, developed and supported legislation on autonomous vehicles which passed and developed legislation that prevented insurers from mandating parts procurement requirements (unfortunately, it never came out of committee).

Ray also co-led a local personal effort in his neighborhood that prevented a developer from decreasing child safety and adding strain to an at-capacity infrastructure. 

In the fall of 2018, after a vacancy occurred at the Automotive Service Association (ASA), Ray applied for the Executive Director position.  After an in-depth interview, the ASA Board of Directors offered Ray the position which he started on January 2, 2019.

In late 2021 and after the long impact of the COVID pandemic, Ray decided to move back to his home in Michigan to be closer to his kids and grandkids.

Ray maintains many relationships with the various State Departments including the Secretary of State Office, Office of Investigative Services and the Business Compliance and Regulation Division Business Regulation Section.

Ray has received numerous awards over the years including the I-CAR Founders Award, ASA Legislative Person of the year Award (two times), ASA Affiliate of the Year Award and received the Automotive Management Institute (AMI) professional designation of  Accredited Master Automotive Manager, the highest level of professional designation available from AMI.