Dealix Management Team

Egon Smola, Vice President Leads Business

At the helm of the most successful provider of sales leads to auto dealers, Egon Smola is responsible for the management and strategic direction of Dealix.

Before joining Dealix, Smola was General Manager with P&L responsibility for Yahoo! Personals. Prior to Yahoo!, he was Group Business Manager at Vodafone, where he was responsible for the roll-out of wireless Internet applications across eight European mobile operators. Smola also served as Country Manager for Amazon.com, Austria and Switzerland. And he held leadership positions as a Management Consultant with Capgemini and as Chief of Staff at the largest geriatric hospital in Austria.

Smola received his BA from the Vienna University of Economics in Austria and his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Kevin Hunt, Vice President of Sales

Kevin Hunt has responsibility for the sales of all of Dealix’s products throughout the ADP Dealer Services sales organization.

Prior to joining Dealix, Hunt held various senior positions in sales and business development.  Most recently, he was Vice President of sales at Klutz Press, an internationally recognized publisher of children's activity books. Prior to Klutz Press, Hunt held positions at companies such as Berkeley Systems, a publisher of consumer entertainment and business utility software; Pinnacle Systems/AVID, a leader in digital video products; and Ironside Technologies, a CRM and eCommerce software company.  The majority of Hunt's professional career has been spent in sales and marketing leadership roles, involved in building new businesses, and the sales channels to support them.

Hunt received his BS from the University of California, Berkeley, where he graduated with honors.

Andrew Dewhirst, Director of Business Development

Andy Dewhirst leads business development for both the new and used vehicle verticals for Dealix.  This includes developing and managing key publisher partners, wholesale/OEM client relationships and product vendors.

Prior to joining Dealix, Dewhirst held a number of leadership positions focused on strategic planning and new business development, including positions with AutoTrader.com, Yahoo! and Fair Isaac, Inc.

Dewhirst holds an MBA from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University and a B.S. degree from Allegheny College.

Curtis Yee, Director of Business Operations

Curtis Yee is responsible for day-to-day operations management at Dealix, including ensuring a great customer experience with the Dealix lead supply and delivering business intelligence throughout the organization.

Most recently he was Vice President of Analytics and Client Services at Verifi, a company specializing in risk management in the electronics payments industry. Prior to Verifi, he was a Vice President in Processing and Emerging Products at Visa, where he had responsibility for transforming risk related data into new products and services. Before Visa, he held analytics and operations positions at Charles Schwab and HSBC.

Yee received his BS in Finance from San Diego State University.

Norris Thompson, Director of Product Management - Leads Products and Platform

Norris Thompson is responsible for the strategic and operational direction of the Dealix leads processing platform, inventory processing, and dealer-facing products and services.

Thompson has a combined total of over 20 years of professional experience in senior management roles in marketing and product with various technology companies in different verticals, including nearly 10 years of automotive vertical experience. He held leadership positions at Reply, Teton Data Systems, Northpoint Communications, Precept Mortgage Company and in the US Navy.

Thompson holds a BA in Economics from the University of Wyoming. He is also a graduate of the US Naval Nuclear Power School.

Clark Maruyama, Director of Engineering

Clark Maruyama is responsible for the delivery of Dealix's technology and IT platforms and infrastructure.

Maruyama brings over 20 years of experience to Dealix having worked in all aspects of engineering from tech management, quality engineering, core engineering code design and development to project management.  Most recently, Maruyama managed intranet, ERP, and web portal solutions at Genomic Health.  Prior, Clark led the engineering product team at Demandtec which was the company’s main revenue driver.

Maruyama holds a BS in Physics from UCLA and his MS in Computer Science from USC.