Chad Remp
Posted Wednesday, March 31, 2010 ; 03:30 PM
Updated Thursday, April 1, 2010; 12:54 PM
OPERATIONS MANAGER, WHEELING TRUCK CENTER; GENERAL MANAGER, LOBSTER TRUCK LEASING & RENTAL INC., WHEELING, 32
On his first paying job: “Working at my family’s dealership. I started when I was 12, working over spring break and summer break. I started out sweeping floors, washing trucks and detailing the equipment. Since then I’ve worked in all the different departments in the dealership, in almost every capacity.”
The way Chad Remp sees it, being part of a family-owned business makes going to work a lot easier. “There’s more flexibility to do what you think is right for the business in the long term and what’s right for our reputation,” he said. “We’re not just concerned with the next year or two; we’re concerned with the long-term aspects of the decisions we make, with how we deal with our customers, how we manage our departments and how we progress in the future.”
Remp, 32, is operations manager at Wheeling Truck Center, the dealership his great-grandfather, the late C.H. Remp, started in 1933, and general manager of Lobster Truck Leasing & Rental. He’s the fourth generation of his family to be part of the management team.
“It’s pretty rare for a business to last that many years and that many generations,” said Remp, a Wheeling resident.
Born in Steubenville, Ohio, Remp graduated in 1998 from Miami University in Ohio with a bachelor’s degreein business, and he earned an MBA in 2001 from West Virginia University. He was part of the Leadership Wheeling Class of 2001 and the National Auto Dealer Association / American Truck Dealer Association Dealer Academy in 2003. He served on the Volvo Truck North America 2010 global think group (2006-08) and was part of Volvo’s Information Technology committee (2007-09).
In 2007, Remp and his wife, Jamie, helped start OV Connect, a group working to keep talented young professionals in West Virginia.
“Wheeling is an absolutely wonderful community; more people need to realize that,” he said. “We have an educated, talented, loyal work force and a reasonable cost of living that doesn’t exist in other communities or large cities. We have a lot to offer here; we can compete on an international level out of Wheeling because of those unique advantages. I’ve always liked the Wheeling area. I don’t have a need or desire to live somewhere else. I do travel a lot for work. I get to see a lot of cities around the country. They’re nice cities to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live in them.”
Remp and his wife have two young children.
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