OPENLANE® Donates to Charities, Announces 2020 Employee Engagement Initiative, in Honor of 20 Years in Business

OPENLANE®, a business unit of global vehicle remarketing and technology services provider KAR Auction Services Inc. d/b/a KAR Global (NYSE: KAR), presented $5,000 checks to two charitable organizations and announced an employee engagement initiative for next year focused on supporting coding education in Canada, all in honor of the company’s 20th anniversary.

“It can be overwhelming to think about all the needs in a city, but I’m encouraged by the way our OPENLANE employees always step up to support worthy causes, here in Toronto and in our other locations,” said Peter Kelly, president of KAR and a co-founder of OPENLANE. “What better way to celebrate our 20-year anniversary than by supporting organizations that serve the communities we live and work in or that seek to cure a prevalent disease like type 1 diabetes.”

One of the $5,000 donations was to JDRF, the leading global organization funding type 1 diabetes (T1D) research. Twenty-five employees from the OPENLANE Toronto innovation and technology hub participated in the Sun Life Ride to Defeat Diabetes for JDRF on October 10, 2019. This high-energy stationary cycling event took place in Toronto and in other cities across Canada.

Another $5,000 donation was to the Toronto Fire Fighters Toy Drive, which helps thousands of families in need in the Toronto area celebrate the holidays each year. The employees of OPENLANE and ADESA Canada, both business units of KAR Global, have worked together to raise more than $9,000 for the toy drive since 2015 through fundraising activities.

In 2020, OPENLANE will encourage employees to use their “Leap Into Service” benefit to volunteer as mentors with Canada Learning Code (CLC), an organization dedicated to ensuring that all people in Canada — particularly women, girls, people with disabilities, indigenous youth, and newcomers — have access to the knowledge they need to prosper in a digital world. KAR’s Leap Into Service program offers full-time employees the opportunity to spend eight hours — with pay — each year volunteering in the community.

To help celebrate its 20-year history as the leader in the digital upstream automotive remarketing marketplace, OPENLANE held a similar event at the company’s office in Mesa, Arizona in September 2019. There OPENLANE presented a $10,000 check to United Food Bank of Mesa, and employees packed 2,400 bags of food for the food bank as a day of service volunteer activity.

OPENLANE is the world’s largest, most trusted and most utilized upstream remarketing platform for OEM, captive finance, financial institution and fleet customers. OPENLANE provides data analytics and comprehensive technology solutions for more than 40 upstream marketplaces supporting 80 percent of North America’s private label brands.

Don Gottwald, president of digital, data & mobility solutions and chief strategy officer at KAR Global, Ian Locke, VP at OPENLANE Canada, Anne Pettigrew, JDRF youth ambassador, Shannon Carkner, JDRF, Peter Kelly, president at KAR Global
Ian Locke, VP at OPENLANE Canada, Yolanda Mabanglo, director of quality assurance at OPENLANE Canada, Anne Pettigrew, JDRF youth ambassador, Shannon Carkner, JDRF, Wendy Zhang, quality assurance manager at OPENLANE Canada, Rachel Green, project coordinator, OPENLANE Canada Alex Collins, senior director of operations, OPENLANE Canada
Max Perry, director of product management, OPENLANE Canada, Randy Murphy, program manager, OPENLANE Canada, Jeff Berenz, representing Toronto Fire Fighters, Captain Rick Berenz, representing Toronto Fire Fighters

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