The Auto Channel
The Largest Independent Automotive Research Resource
The Largest Independent Automotive Research Resource
Official Website of the New Car Buyer

LiveDeal.com Appoints Devon Cohen as Vice President, Automobiles

Former FordDirect.com CEO Brings Deep Experience in the Internet, Automobile Industries to Fast-Growing Local Online Marketplace

PALO ALTO, Calif., Nov. 17 -- LiveDeal(TM) (http://www.livedeal.com/), the leading online marketplace for buying and selling goods locally, today announced it has appointed Devon Cohen as Vice President, Automobiles. Mr. Cohen, the former CEO of FordDirect.com, joins LiveDeal with extensive experience in the Internet and automobile industries. As Vice President, Automobiles, Mr. Cohen will focus on the $370 billion used auto market in the U.S. and the $5 billion auto classifieds listing business to further accelerate LiveDeal's already strong growth in the industry.

Mr. Cohen has an exceptional record of growing businesses for marquee companies, including Mercedes-Benz, Merrill Lynch, Ford, KPMG and HSBC. Throughout his 25-year career, he has successfully led the development of businesses in all stages, from concept through business reinvention, in senior management positions including CEO, COO and CFO. Mr. Cohen has been recognized for effective development and execution of business, financial and strategic processes, consistently exceeding plan and building significant shareholder value.

"The automobile marketplace continues to be LiveDeal's fastest-growing category and holds almost limitless potential for the company," said Rajesh Navar, founder and CEO of LiveDeal. "I'm delighted to welcome Devon to the LiveDeal team and am enthusiastic about how we can put his experience, insight and vision to work to continue to improve and expand the LiveDeal experience for our automotive customers and partners."

Mr. Cohen previously served as CEO of FordDirect.com. There, he was recruited by the president of Ford Division and the chairman of the Ford Dealer Council to redefine marketing strategy, reorganize and build FordDirect, the nation's first in-channel joint venture between a manufacturer and its dealer base. Mr. Cohen focused on leveraging the Internet to increase vehicle retail sales, increasing Internet sales to over 150,000 vehicles per year, and by building strong consumer and dealer relationships, increasing dealer participation by over 5,000 participating dealerships.

Mr. Cohen's extensive automotive industry experience includes serving as the group vice president -- automotive for Westchester, NY-based Tradeout, a B2B eBay sister company. Mr. Cohen also served as the vice president and general manager for DaimlerChrysler Financial Services. Earlier, he was vice president -- services division, for the company's Mercedes Benz Credit Corporation and CEO of DaimlerChrysler's Remarketing Services of America (RSA). Mr. Cohen also served in senior management positions at financial services companies including HSBC -- Marine Midland Bank, Goldome Realty Credit Corp, Merrill Lynch Mortgage Corp. and Accounting Firm KPMG Peat Marwick.

"LiveDeal represents the future of buying and selling used cars at the person to person level," remarked Mr. Cohen. "Its innovative online marketplace offers sellers a more cost-effective alternative to the classifieds and online auctions and gives buyers an efficient way to identify cars in their local area before venturing further from home. I'm excited about joining LiveDeal at this point in the company's evolution and look forward to helping to create an even better automotive experience for sellers and buyers."

Mr. Cohen holds a B.S. in accounting from SUNY Binghamton. He is one course from becoming a Kellogg Executive Marketing Scholar at Northwestern University in Chicago. Mr. Cohen sits on the board of directors of a number of automotive, Internet and financial services companies. He has been a keynote speaker at leading trade association conferences and has been honored for his business achievements as a finalist in the Ernst & Young "Entrepreneur of the Year" award, "Top 40 Executives Under 40" from the Business First Newspaper in Buffalo, NY, and as a Willis Bryant Scholar as a top national mortgage banking school graduate.

About LiveDeal

With a management team hailing from eBay and other pioneering Internet companies, LiveDeal is a local online marketplace that creates the next- generation classifieds, yellow pages and e-commerce into one user-friendly solution. LiveDeal.com is ideal for trading hard-to-ship items such as automobiles, furniture, pets, appliances, real estate and other "try before you buy" items, eliminating shipping costs and reducing fraud. Buyers can browse or search for items using LiveDeal's easy-to-use web interface, seeing what's available locally first and nationwide second. LiveDeal also serves the national market for sellers looking for a more cost-effective marketplace to list multiple items for sale in a single click and without the burden of listing fees. For more information, visit http://www.livedeal.com/ or call 650-320-9070.