What Happened?

About the Company

The auto industry is evolving. How vehicles are bought, sold and financed is also changing. One constant: the industry and its various markets continue to trust Black Book insight and its innovative delivery systems to make the right business decisions faster. Since 1955, we’ve been sharing what we know with other car people. It all began with three Georgia businessmen pooling their notes on local auto auctions. These sessions became a weekly publication made available to other dealers. Today, Black Book is a division of the Hearst Business Media Corporation. Our line-up of innovative products and services includes new and used vehicle value services, custom data licensing solutions, as well as lender origination and risk analysis. In recent history, the rapid pace of industry change can be evidenced at the dealership level, where information access has forever transformed the way car-shoppers approach the buying process. As online and mobile technologies have reshaped the overall dealership business model, Black Book has remained a step ahead offering pioneering tools that enhance the customer experience while simultaneously generating the highest quality lead generation solutions for dealerships nationwide.

About the Person

Laird Popkin has responsibility for all product development and IT operations for the entire group, which includes National Auto Research, Veretech Holdings, Inc., and Canadian Black Book. He reports directly to Black Book President Tom Cross. Popkin joins Black Book from Kaplan, Inc., where he was chief enterprise architect. He has more than 25 years of executive and technology management experience at leading companies and has held CTO positions at Pando Networks, Warner Music Group, 3Path, Sotheby’s Holdings and News Corp’s Internet Services.