Hear from leaders at CDK Global — a standard-bearer of automotive retail software — on why the need to look outside a company for new ideas should be seen as a clear benefit and not a detractor to its core business…and employees. Legacy businesses have deep roots in their respective industries, but acquisitions allow new branches of service and product to sprout in new directions. How can you identify a partner that will allow your start-up to fuel similar growth?

Speakers

Dave Latham | VP of Product CDK Roadster, CDK Global

Dave Latham has spent the last 20 years building software to improve the consumer experience around car buying. He has lead product, design and engineering organizations for multiple automotive SaaS businesses from high-growth startups to large public companies. Dave was an early product leader at Jumpstart Automotive Group (acquired by Hearst) where he ran digital products for legendary publications Car and Driver and Road & Track. He ran user experience and greenfield product development at online car marketplace TrueCar both in its pre- and post-IPO lifecycle. Most recently he ran product development for Roadster — a leader in omnichannel commerce for car dealers — which was acquired by CDK Global in June of 2021.

Mahesh Shah | EVP and Chief Product and Technology Officer, CDK Global

Mahesh Shah is responsible for driving product innovation, research and development, building and testing, as well as outlining a roadmap for existing and future portfolios at CDK Global. Prior to CDK Global, Mahesh was the general manager and vice president, Acquisition and Divestiture, IT Consulting Services at Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE). Mahesh held various roles throughout his 16-year tenure at HPE including chief information officer, Enterprise Services and Software and vice president, Product R&D and IT as well as several other executive roles in IT automation and cloud engineering. Mahesh earned his Bachelor of Commerce degree, specializing in management information systems from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada, and his Master of Business Administration degree from Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. He also serves on the board of advisors for several technology startups.