YPA Spotlight: Aftermarket career growth driven by different perspectives:

As a young professional, Andrew Ionescu’s career has quickly grown and has resulted in many great accomplishments. He credits his success to his different perspectives resembling those of the end users rather than of the industry veterans. Andrew feels passionate about giving a voice to young professionals in the automotive industry and sharing his experiences and strategies to revitalize the auto care sector.

What company do you currently work for? What is your position?

I am currently working as Hunter Engineering’s Global Business Development Manager, overseeing both North American and international growth projects. My main focus is to develop new ideas and tools to help both Hunter and our partners succeed in every area of their business.

I started as a sales and marketing coordinator for Hunter Canada in June 2021, and after many examples of going above and beyond as well as a show of passion for the company and industry, I was promoted to my current position in April of 2022.

What does your participation in the Young Professionals in the Aftermarket community mean to you? What would you like to see us as a committee achieve in years to come?

The Young Professionals in the Aftermarket (YPA) community is the future of the industry. By giving a platform and voice to young professionals, the YPA community and AIA Canada are ensuring that we can think about and plan for problems/opportunities that will present themselves long after most of the current industry spokespeople have retired.

I really like witnessing the current push towards educating people on the exciting prospects that the automotive aftermarket can bring and why careers in this space should be at the top of people’s radar.

What is one of your proudest moments in your career so far?

My proudest moment was attending and presenting at Automechanika 2022 in Germany and broadening my understanding of the industry from only looking at what is going on in my own backyard to how the entire world is looking at the developments in the industry.

What advice would you give someone either starting in the industry or looking to transition into the industry?

My biggest weakness coming into the industry was also one of my biggest strengths. I think my lack of knowledge of automotive services and parts is not so different from most of the automotive industry’s end users, and so I was able to bring a perspective to my work and to my colleagues that they might not have thought about otherwise. I had to spend a lot of time and effort to catch up and be able to have a confident conversation about undercar services, but this industry is way too vast and there are so many niches, that there will always be someone that knows more about something. My advice to someone new would be to try and use that to your advantage by questioning everything and giving people a perspective that makes sense, but that they may not have thought about.

About the Young Professionals in the Aftermarket Committee

Young Professionals in the Aftermarket (YPA) is an Automotive Industries Association of Canada (AIA Canada) committee comprising of young executives, of 45 years or younger, in the Canadian auto care sector. The committee’s mandate is to ensure the future growth and prosperity of the aftermarket industry.