Colorado Springs auto dealership executive nominated for TIME award

Jessica Snouwaert, The Gazette (Colorado Springs, Colo.)
·2 min read

Oct. 19—Kevin Shaughnessy, executive vice president of Colorado Springs-based Phil Long Dealerships, will represent Colorado in the competition for the 2023 TIME Dealer of the Year award, a news release announced this week.

Shaughnessy is among 48 nominees who will compete for what is one of the auto industry's highest awards; the TIME Dealer of the Year award recognizes the nation's most successful car dealers who also show an ongoing commitment to community service, according to the release.

"At the heart of our mission we've always had philanthropy as a core value and as we've grown, the amount of philanthropy we can provide within our state and our communities has really grown," Shaughnessy said Wednesday. "I suppose that being entrusted with leading the automotive dealerships for Phil Long I think that dealers appreciate the support of what our whole organization has done and I get to be the guy I guess who gets the recognition."

Shaughnessy joined Phil Long Ford in 2006 as a general sales manager and has since worked his way up the corporate ladder; he was named vice president and managing partner of the dealership group in 2018.

Before working at Phil Long, Shaughnessy started in automotive retail in New Mexico and Texas.

At Phil Long, Shaughnessy, who lives in Denver and works mostly in Colorado Springs, oversees more than a dozen brands with dealerships across the region.

Shaughnessy serves on the board of Mt. Carmel Veterans Service Center in Colorado Springs; the nonprofit was founded by Jay Cimino, president and CEO at Phil Long, and has served nearly 13,000 veterans, military members and their families.

He also oversees Phil Long Dealerships' annual United Way workplace campaign and Susan G. Komen Colorado partnership, the release said, and directs the company's philanthropic efforts by leading the Corporate Sponsorship & Philanthropy Committee.

"It really is the combined efforts of 1,200 wonderful employees, an organization that is philanthropic at heart and a partner like Jay Cimino that pushes us to do more always," Shaughnessy said.

Dealers are nominated for the TIME award by the executives of state and metro dealer associations around the country; Shaughnessy was nominated by Tim Jackson, president and CEO of the Colorado Automobile Dealers Association.

Three finalists and a winner for the TIME award will be selected among four regions by a panel of faculty members from the Tauber Institute for Global Operations at the University of Michigan, the release said.

The three finalists will receive $5,000 to give to their favorite charities, and the winner will receive $10,000 to give to charity, with funds donated by Ally, a digital financial services company.

Shaughnessy and the other nominees will be honored at the 106th annual National Automobile Dealers Association Show in Dallas on Jan. 27.