James Hallett, Business Award

Former Executive Chairman & Chairman of the Board for KAR Global (Retired)
Recreation Management, 1975

Jim Hallett’s life has turned out far beyond what he could have ever imagined.

His journey started in the tiny town of Lyn outside of Brockville in eastern Ontario where he and his two siblings were raised by a single mother in a home without running water and a furnace.

Today, as he enters the twilight of his career, he owns the Indy Fuel, a professional hockey team that began play in the East Coast Hockey League (ECHL) in the 2014-15 season. He is presiding over the building of a new $175 million event centre the Fuel will call home in his adopted home of Indianapolis.

He spent nearly three decades at the helm of the Fortune 500 company, KAR Auction Services, a leading wholesaler of used vehicles. Hallett retains his seat on the board of directors.

The successful entrepreneur is the recipient of numerous industry, business and community awards including the 2014 National EY Entrepreneur of the Year, 2017 United Way of Central Indiana Exceptional Executive, 2018 National Auto Auction Association / International Automotive Remarketers Alliance (NAAA/IARA) Industry Icon Award, 2018 Indiana Chamber Dynamic Leader of the Year, and 2019 NAAA Hall of Fame Award.

“My life has been beyond comprehension,” Hallett said.

He graduated from recreation management at Algonquin College in 1975 as a young man ready to take on the world.

“Everything I have done since I left Algonquin has been a blessing,” he said.

With jobs in the recreation field hard to come by after graduation he took the advice of a friend and started selling cars at Myers Motors in Ottawa.

It turned out he was very good at it, smashing sales records before moving into management just 14 months into the job.

While there he started a car auction company in 1990 on the outskirts of Ottawa off Highway 417 in Vars. A second outlet would soon follow in Halifax. He then ended up merging those two businesses with the American outfit where he would become CEO for decades.

“I never thought I would leave Ottawa. I love Ottawa. I love the seasons. I love everything about it. But I have also fallen in love with Indianapolis as well. This is a great place to live. If you can imagine, where are you going to end up, you just don’t know.”

His philanthropy knows no bounds with him supporting different colleges and universities with bursaries and scholarships. His generosity extends to youth organizations like the Boys and Girls Club and several women’s charities.

“I tell young people I meet to find something they are passionate about and go do it and they will find their path. It’s pretty amazing.”

On learning of his being named an Algonquin College Alumni of Distinction Award recipient in the Business category, Hallett said first of all he was very surprised.

When he opened the e-mail and read his alma mater was honouring him, his first reaction was ‘how did this happen?’

“Listen, it’s very humbling. To get recognized among your peers, among kids you went to school with, and your community, I’m humbled, as I said. I thought, as many others do as well, I’m sure, ‘why me’? You’ve had a lot of students go through that college. I can only imagine there are some great success stories and to just be considered, just to be nominated, is very gratifying.”

Hallett spoke of his years at Algonquin College as life changing. He met his wife of 49 years in his first year. He still keeps in touch with his college buddies, reuniting many times over the past almost half-century. And he remembers fondly his teachers and professors.

“Algonquin College was just the right place at the right time,” he said. “I had no idea what I wanted to do. All I knew is that I liked sports and I was athletic. If I hadn’t gone to Algonquin College who knows what the road would have looked like. It could have been very different. I have never accomplished anything on my own. Never. I had unbelievable people that wrapped around me.”

One thing he tells young people all the time is to have mentors in their life. Hallett has a business confidante – Pat Butler – he fostered in those early days in the car industry that he still calls on for advice. Butler was recently honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Ottawa Board of Trade.

In Hallet’s journey he has mixed with corporate elite, senior executives of all the main financial institutions and car manufacturers, and those who make Wall Street click.

But his role model in life is his mother Mabel, who passed away in 2006.

“Her values are my values. The things she lived by are the things I try to teach my kids to live by. We don’t always get it right but it’s all about living by her values. I attribute a lot of my success to those values that my mother ingrained in us when we were kids.

“I always think ‘what would my mom think of me doing this.”

Everyone wants to know what his secret to success is, or as he puts it, ‘what is the secret sauce’.

“Well, the answer is, there is none,” he says.

“If you really, really love it, just go and do it. Don’t worry about how much money you are going to make when you’re going into the job. Think more about where you want to be in 10 years from now. Think more about where you want to be 15-20 years from now.

“Have a mentor, have people in your life that you can go to, and you can get wisdom from.

“There’s a lot of power in wisdom. And there’s a lot of wisdom, but only if you ask for it.

“I was first in, and I was last out. You don’t have to kill yourself, but always be the example. Don’t be the last one in the door in the morning and the first one out in the evening.”

“I never had many bad days. I always had a very positive attitude. I always had a lot of energy. I was always very social and engaged and I think I did a good job treating people fairly and being interested in their lives and their careers.”

If he has one piece of advice to leave young people as they make their way in the world, it is to be involved in their community and find a charity they like and are passionate about.

“It’s not a choice. It’s not a responsibility. It’s an obligation. You pay it forward,” he said. I think you have to be really good to your community. This community has been very, very good to me. This city (Indianapolis) has really embraced me.”

His latest benevolence is called Mabel’s Ride in memory of his mother.

With no means of transportation growing up, his family relied on friends to get then to a doctor’s appointment or get to the dentist or even to get to church on Sunday.

One of the biggest challenges for the hospitals in his adopted hometown is getting oncology patients to their appointments because they don’t have rides.

The service provides people transportation to get to their oncology appointments. Hallett has a vision of nationalizing Mabel’s Ride.

“If you talk to a CEO of a hospital in Ottawa, Brockville or Indianapolis, the number one issue they deal with is missed appointments.”