New business executive at GEM focused on winning

Tom Reddin, the new chief executive officer of Gillett Evernham Motorsports, has been around NASCAR for a long time, and when team owners Ray Evernham and George Gillett plucked him from LendingTree, it was experience and management style that caught their collective eye. (read more)

But for Reddin, it was the thrill of competition that made the team too good to pass up.

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Before starting the Country Time Lemonade sponsorship in the late 1980s while a senior product manager with Kraft, Reddin caught the racing bug as a young man and competed nationally in a variety of series, including the Sports Car Club of America, Formula Ford and BMW Club.

"I think every business opportunity is a challenge," Reddin said. "I feel very confident, given that I've been in the marketing and sales arena at Kraft, Coca-Cola and LendingTree, and ultimately general management of the business, for two reasons. One, I know the sport. Country Time Lemonade was one of the very first sponsors from the non-automotive world to recognize the power and the value of a full-time sponsorship of a Cup car. We used that as a marketing platform to advance the brands, not only from business to consumer but from business to business.

"Also at Coca-Cola USA, I saw the value, with the Coca-Cola Family of Racers. I have two strong experiences in the business world of how this property [NASCAR] can grow a business and grow a brand. The second piece is, I used to be an amateur racer."

It is perhaps telling that one of his best racing memories occurred when he himself was behind the wheel.

"I was up at Lime Rock [Conn.] and in one of my better races, I qualified fifth," he said. "My wife was up in the flag stand with my driving coach. The first lap, I passed a car to get to fourth place. The second lap, I passed another one to get to third. The next lap, I passed another car to get to second and the following lap I passed one more coming down the front straight, and I went into the first turn, the red haze came over my vision. I went in way too hot, the back end came around, I overcorrected and hit the guardrail.

"My wife looked at my coach and asked, 'What happened?' My coach said, 'Too much foot, not enough talent.'"

That experience, combined with stellar stops at Kraft, Coca-Cola USA and LendingTree, give him a unique view of the sport, and that is what Evernham and Gillett were looking for in a CEO. (Continued)