Organizers have announced the participants of the Heavy Duty Distribution Panel, one of three Industry Expert Discussion Panels at the Heavy Duty Aftermarket Dialogue conference, to be held Jan. 21 immediately preceding Heavy Duty Aftermarket Week 2013.


Participants in the Heavy Duty Distribution Panel will include three representatives of the various elements of the channel: a national distributor, an independent distributor and a large truck dealer.

John Bzeta is president and CEO of Fleet Brake, one of North America's leading independent distributors. Headquartered in Alberta, his company is fully involved in the truck parts business, including the "oil patch" area of western Canada, servicing the demand of both trucking fleets and oil field vehicles.

Duane Kyrish, recipient of the International Dealer of the Year award, is the owner of Longhorn International Trucks, headquartered in Austin, Texas, with an award-winning truck leasing business, Longhorn Idealease. Under his leadership, Longhorn has grown to 105 employees, two dealer locations and has received the Circle of Excellence Award a total of 27 times.

Lee Stockseth is president and COO of FleetPride, America's largest HD distributor, with more than 250 locations in 45 states. Stockseth has more than 29 years of experience in the heavy-duty industry and has held a variety of executive positions at FleetPride since joining the company in 1998.

The day-long conference will also feature a heavy-duty supplier discussion panel as well as a panel from the perspective of fleet owners, scheduled between two expert presentations; the North American Economic Outlook to be presented by Dr. Bob Dieli of RDLB Inc., followed by the Heavy Duty Industry Forecast presented by Stu MacKay of MacKay & Co.

The conference will include breakfast, two breaks and a luncheon, each intended to facilitate networking with industry peers, as well as conference books containing presentation materials.

For more information or to register for the Heavy Duty Aftermarket Dialogue conference, or any of the other conferences in the HDD Conference Series, visit www.hdma.org .