Todd Wolf was nominated for the 2020 Directors Award because of his contribution to IAATI as Chair of the Education, Training and Certification Committee and for his work with the Auto Finance Committee.

Over the last two years Todd has chaired the Education, Training and Certification Committee. In this role he was tasked with overseeing the rewriting of IAATI’s Certification Program.

Todd took over the role with vigor and has completely rewritten all the chapters in the reference material, written new chapters, revised and re-written the exam questions, reviewed all the applications forms and criteria for qualification and oversaw the development of a new modernized certificate.

While he did receive some assistant form a small number of his committee members, the vast majority of the work was completed by Todd. He was the driving force behind this project, motivating his colleagues and ensuring the work maintain high standards.

Just revising the content of the certification was not enough for Todd. He wanted to develop the program further. He explored working with NICTA so the Certification Program Educational material and exam can be hosted online on the NICTA platform. He further negotiated a partnership with NICTA whereby for a reduced subscription, IAATI would promote NCTA to our members. For IAATI members, the benefits of using the NICTA platform is that it opens up the opportunity to undertake a range of additional online training already on the NICTA platform.

As indicated, the use of NICTA platform to host our certification, while offering many benefits, also incurs an extra expense for IAATI. To overcome this expense and to ensure that we have the necessary funding in the long term and also have something we can continue to regularly update and further develop the certification program, Todd has worked closely with the ATPA Committee to secure significant funding for the this initiative.

The Certification program is not the only thing that Todd has worked on. He has started work on preparing a Webinar program and has also been active as chair of the Auto Finance Committee. He has negotiated a Partnership Agreement between IAATI and the International Association of Financial Crime Investigators (IAFCI) to work more closely with each other, including promoting both Associations to our members, encouraging the sharing of articles, speakers etc. This Partnership agreement was recently approved by the IAATI Executive Board and will be officially signed by both Presidents shortly.

As an example of this partnership with IAFCI, Todd has drafted a Best Practice Worksheet and Checklist for Auto Dealers to reduce their risk of Finance Fraud, particularly during COVID-19 when there is less face-to-face interaction with buyers. These documents were jointly branded with both Association’s logos and distributed by both Associations. Again this was 100% Todd’s initiative and his work.

While the re-launching of the IAATI Certification Program is nearly completely, Todd is already looking to take the program further. He is looking to have the IAATI Certification program recognized by Standards authorities in the US as the National Standard for Vehicle Crime Investigators and wanting to work with ATPA to ensure that they share their training material and help develop a National Standard Training and Certification Program.

Todd deserves tremendous credit for what he has achieved. He has clearly demonstrated the leadership skills, persistence and willingness to put in many hours of hard work to help IAATI and it members. He is an extremely deserving recipient of the Directors Award. We thank him and congratulate him on this award.