Here’s who’s on the AIA Canada board

Shannon Spano, left, accepts a plaque officially marking her time as chair of AIA Canada from past chair Jason Yurchak

It’s official: The head of AIA Canada’s board of directors executive committee will be known as ‘chair’ with Shannon Spano taking the helm.

The title change will remain in place — new buttons identifying the position denote ‘chair’ instead of ‘chairman’ as in years past have been made.

With Spano, vice president of Sales at Wakefield Canada, sliding into the role of chair, Jason Yurchak, senior vice president at Worldpac Canada, was elected to the role of immediate past chair during AIA Canada’s Annual General Meeting on May 3.

Joining them on the board are Ryan Bruno, president of CSN Collision Centres, as first vice chair and Tony Kuczynski, president and CEO of Mister Transmission as second vice chair.

Four new members of the board were elected to the board. Jasna Smiljcic, senior director and country leader at Gates, Jason G. Herle, CEO of Fountain Tire, Michael O’Callaghan, COO and vice president of operations at Craftsman Collision and Micheline Davies, senior vice president of automotive at Canadian Tire are the newly-elected members and will serve on the board until the 2026 AGM.

According to the announcement from AIA Canada, Smiljcic has more than 20 years of experience in the auto care industry. She joined Gates in 2019 as the Canadian industrial replacement sales director. Since then, she was promoted to Canadian country sales director and her current role of senior director and country leader.

Herle has been with Fountain Tire since 1994 and held a number of positions in Western Canada before being promoted to chief executive officer in 2022. He is currently a board member of Fountain Tire Ltd. and GlassMasters Autoglass and is the past Chair of the Finance Committee for the Western Canadian Tire Dealers Association. He has also been a contributor to the CARS 2023 Executive Outlook. You can read his most recent industry observations here.

At Craftsman, O’Callaghan oversees operations and human resources, with a focus on financial and operational sustainability. He has 35 years of automotive industry experience, both on the shop floor and in the head office. He’s an auto care sector promoter and regularly sits on committees representing the industry.

Davies leads Canadian Tire’s automotive portfolio, which includes Canadian Tire businesses, as well as the Petroleum and PartSource banners. She spearheaded the company’s Women’s Leadership Network, and was a winner of WXN’s Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women in 2020.

AIA Canada thanked former directors Bob Jaworski and Graham Jeffery for their commitment and service to the board.