Young Executive of the Year Award
Purpose
The Import Vehicle Community honors outstanding young executives in the import automotive industry for their dedication, enthusiasm and accomplishments. This award recognizes the leadership and integrity of executives and team leaders under the age of 40.
Qualifications
The candidate must be involved in the automotive aftermarket for import vehicles.
The candidate must have made remarkable contributions to their organization, which also have a positive benefit for the import vehicle aftermarket.
The candidate must be known as one whose character and integrity are beyond reproach and admired.
Candidates must be under 40 years old by December 31, 2025, to be eligible for nomination.
Self-nominations are not accepted.
2025 Young Executive of the Year Award Winner
Mallory Long
Director of Vendor Relations & Marketing, SSF Imported Auto Parts LLC
Mallory Long is the Director of Vendor Relations & Marketing for SSF Imported Auto Parts, a leading warehouse distributor of European automotive products and tools for the independent automotive aftermarket. Celebrating 50 years of service to the automotive aftermarket in 2026, SSF pursues extensive expansion plans in both product availability and physical warehouse footprint.
Mallory started her aftermarket career with Corteco, a brand of Freudenberg – NOK. As part of her various leadership positions there, she was integral in setting up the product, sales, and marketing strategies for the North American headquarters and key accounts. One of those customers was SSF, which ultimately led to Mallory joining the company in 2023. In her current role, Mallory manages relationships with SSF’s vendors, including leading the outbound marketing strategies and programs targeting the European shops. With a wide variety of responsibilities, she finds the fast-paced, customer centric and “all hands-on deck” culture of SSF to be what motivates her most.
Aside from her versatile position at SSF, Mallory enjoys participating in various sports leagues in her local community and spending time with her family, friends and dogs.
Mallory started her aftermarket career with Corteco, a brand of Freudenberg – NOK. As part of her various leadership positions there, she was integral in setting up the product, sales, and marketing strategies for the North American headquarters and key accounts. One of those customers was SSF, which ultimately led to Mallory joining the company in 2023. In her current role, Mallory manages relationships with SSF’s vendors, including leading the outbound marketing strategies and programs targeting the European shops. With a wide variety of responsibilities, she finds the fast-paced, customer centric and “all hands-on deck” culture of SSF to be what motivates her most.
Aside from her versatile position at SSF, Mallory enjoys participating in various sports leagues in her local community and spending time with her family, friends and dogs.
Previous Award Winners
- Brian Cohn (1999)
- ** (2000)
- Jeff Olefson (2001)
- Fred Snow (2002)
- Pat Suiter (2003)
- Todd Patkin (2004)
- Eric Michael Breslow (2005)
- Matthew Waters (2006)
- J. Scott Huston (2007)
- Dan Bouchey (2008)
- Brian Cruickshank (2009)
- John Sanford (2010)
- Brian Griffin III (2011)
- Kenny Ho (2012)
- Nick Bauer (2013)
- Ted Hughes (2014)
- Scott Drozd (2015)
- Aaron Shaffer (2016)
- Naomi Rivas (2017)
- Matthias Kopecky (2018)
- Meagan Moody (2019)
- ** (2020)
- Mac Eash (2021)
- Eric Lough (2022)
- Sebastian Zelger (2023)
- Don Snyder (2024)
** Award not presented.