Justin Jude President and CEO -LQK Online

Justin L. Jude became President and Chief Executive Officer of LKQ Online in July 2024 after serving as our Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer since January 2024. Mr. Jude has been with us since February 2004 in various roles, including from March 2008 to February 2011 as Vice President - Supply Chain, from February 2011 through May 2014 as Vice President - Information Systems (North America), from June 2014 to July 2015 as President of Keystone Automotive Operations, Inc., and from July 2015 through December 2023 as Senior Vice President of LKQ Corporation and President of Wholesale - North America.

https://www.lkqonline.com/

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 2 (00:05):
Justin Jude Global, CEO of LKQ Corporation. We were founded
in nineteen ninety eight. We did our first acquisition which
brought us into Tennessee Manchester, Tennessee in two thousand and
then a larger company we acquired in two thousand and
seven called Keystone Automotive, formerly known in the market as
Fenders and More. And so we started moving our headquarters

(00:25):
for North America operations into Nashville in two thousand and
eight when I relocated down here. Our mission is to
be the global value added distributor of products and solutions
services to our customers. Our customers are primarily collision shops
and mechanical shops. We were founded as a automotive recycler,
so think of a junkyard, but much more professionalized a

(00:47):
business than your typical Sanford and suns. And we processed
over eight hundred thousand vehicles and so we like to
make sure that those vehicles do not end up in
a landfill, the chemicals don't end up in the soil,
and so we recycle detoxified those vehicles and then sell
those products. We make money at it, but we're doing
it from a sustainable standpoint. But we want to be
a global value added distributor of automotive parts and solutions.

(01:07):
We were founded in Salvage and fast forward today from
twenty five years ago. When we were founded, we'd process
eight hundred thousand vehicles, so selling used engines transmissions. We've
expanded into collision parts. Half of our business is actually
in Europe, so we sell a lot of replacement parts
and mechanical and maintenance parts think of oil filters, alternators
and things like that. But we are servicing the automotive sector,

(01:31):
whether that's mechanical, whether that's collision shops. But we typically
only sell to other shops. We sell some retail, but
most of our businesses to other mechanical shops that are
garageous that are doing the work. We support a lot
of different initiatives and charities. We created a foundation in
twenty and twenty. We donate over four million dollars A

(01:51):
million of that typically goes through employees or employee families
children such as that for scholarships. We also have an
employee is Lely fund. So think of some of the
hurricanes that have occurred in Florida and some of the
other markets where we will help not just our employees,
but also help the communities for which we operate. It's
critical for us to be known as a good corporate
citizen and a good community supporter, so we created this

(02:15):
foundation and make sure we have a good opportunity to
allocate that money out. We operate in Ukraine. We have
fifty locations in Ukraine, so we not just help our
employees in Ukraine, but also help some of the communities
in those areas that are suffering just from the Russian invasion.
You know, we're a large company. Some people like to
work for large companies, but we operate very independently, so
we strive ourselves on entrepreneurship. We are a company of

(02:37):
over three hundred and twenty acquisitions since nineteen ninety eight,
so across the whole globe. We operate in twenty five countries,
so a lot of different cultures, a lot of different backgrounds,
diverse diversities and views, and we pride ourselves on bringing
in diversity from a view standpoint, from an ethnicity standpoint.
So it's a great company work for We have a
great future ahead of us for the products and services

(02:58):
that we offer, but we still have the autonomy to
operate as independent businesses throughout the world. LKQ being over
sixteen hundred locations across the globe, forty eight thousand employees.
And if you really want to work for a company
or support a company, buy from a company that is
all about sustainability. That's how we were founded. Once again,
in use products that we offer today, we have great

(03:21):
opportunities for employees that come aboard advancement opportunities. And so
to the research on LKQ, you'll find it very interesting.
We're not your normal consumer known company, but we are
a great company. We're in Fortune, we're in top Fortune
three hundred as well.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
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