As a magazine editor it's not often that I allow myself an editorial opinion piece but I have been bewildered and fuming since I received the news about the MTAs letting MTAA CEO Matt Hobbs go last week.
In my opinion Matt Hobbs was the best thing to happen to our industry for a very long time. In the 14 years I've been in the editor's chair I have never seen the MTAA achieve as much as Hobbs has in his 18 month or so tenure. He hit the ground running with NEVS, the franchise code and the MVRI code of conduct. He went into bat for the collision repair industry like no other, all the while working to address the issues of all of the other members of MTAs from mechanical workshops to dealers. He flew all around the country, actually met with business owners, visited their premises and really listened. He has amazing contacts in parliament and in the motor industry in general - when I first saw his pedigree I remember thinking that there couldn't have been a better selection.
Matt Hobbs has built up some serious momentum to create positive change for automotive business owners. He brought their issues to both ministers and shadow ministers and was poised to take advantage of a groundswell of public and political opinion that insurers should play/be made to play fairer. So why would you remove the most effective weapon I've seen in the automotive arsenal? To aim at feet? Hobbs put in ridiculous hours and spent a lot of time on planes in his national role, so how does it make sense to remove him and give this onerous role, even temporarily to Rod Camm who is a highly effective CEO for MTAQ? I seriously doubt Camm is sitting playing solitaire on his computer to while away free time - he'll be working silly hours for his members too.
My phone has been lighting up with people, many of whom can't be seen to comment on the matter, furious and quite frankly aghast at this decision. If you have an opinion please leave a comment on the disqus platform.