There's More Than Just Booze in Ex-Honda VP John Mendel's Future

After retiring on April 1 following 13 years at American Honda, former executive vice president John Mendel isn’t fading quietly into obscurity.

Sure, he plans to form a distillery business with his sons — who doesn’t? — but retired auto executives rarely take both feet out of their former world. So, it doesn’t come as a shock that Mendel is poised to join the board of directors at the car shopping website TrueCar.

In a statement released today, TrueCar said it has nominated Mendel for election in the hopes of filling a seat vacated by Abhishek Agrawal. Stockholders will give their yeas or nays on May 18th.

Mendel joined Honda’s U.S. division in 2004 after stints at both Ford and Mazda. He served as chief operating officer at Mazda North America from 2001 to 2004, after moving on from his director of marketing role at Ford Britain. His career began at Ford in 1987.

At Honda, Mendel’s role is now filled by Jeff Conrad, the division’s former general manager.

“We are very excited to nominate John Mendel for election to serve as a director to the TrueCar Board,” said chairman Chris Claus. “John is a seasoned automotive executive with more than 30 years of experience leading great automotive brands in sales, service, marketing and executive management. We believe John would serve all TrueCar shareholders with distinction, and would provide invaluable advice and counsel to our management team, as he has a deep understanding of all of the forces at play in our category that influence OEMs, dealers and consumers.”

Mendel claims he’s looking forward to “being part of an even more exciting future” for TrueCar.

Mendel having a seat at the board would be a win for TrueCar, which began a Automotive News] [Image: Mike Mozart/ Flickr ( CC BY 2.0)]