Johan Meyssen is retiring as CEO at Adesa after 15 years at the business.

Meyssen retires from Adesa after 15 years at the business

Described as a “consistent and driving force” in the business, Meyssen helped Adesa grow into a remarketing giant with sales entities in six countries and customers in more than 50 countries.

He joined Adesa – then CarsOnTheWeb – in 2008, bringing over 20 years in the automotive industry with Europcar Belgium and Keddy Car Rental.

During the course of his tenure with Adesa, he grew sales volumes by 10 times while maintaining deep commercial customer loyalty to the platform and expanding the company’s international buyer network to more than 100,000 members.

Other credits include the successful development and rollout of Adesa’s company strategy and the go-to-market processes of two major business lines: the traditional cross-border sales of cars sourced from commercial customers, and – with the acquisition of GWListe in 2018 – the dealer-to-dealer business model.

Most recently, Meyssen oversaw the consolidation and integration of Adesa UK and Adesa GWListe into the unified adesa.eu platform. This launched earlier this year, making it easier and faster than ever for customers across Europe to find the inventory they want.

Meyssen is also a key figure in the wider remarketing industry, including co-founding CARA (Car Remarketing Association Europe).

Srisu Subrahmanyam, Adesa

“Johan’s bold vision and flexible thinking set a high bar for our customers and our employees as we led the way forward for our industry,” said Srisu Subrahmanyam, executive vice president of operations and president, services and international markets at parent firm Openlane.

“For 15 years, he challenged the status quo with new ideas, leveraging the efficiency and convenience of Adesa’s digital platform to reinvent and streamline cross-border used car sales.

“We are grateful for Johan’s leadership and business acumen, for his many contributions and years of service, and we wish him the very best in his retirement.”