The Truck Renting and Leasing Association (TRALA) has announced the keynote speaker for its 2018 Annual Meeting will be Bob Knight, retired basketball coach, and its Industry Speaker will be Roger Nielsen, president and CEO of Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA) and its affiliated companies.
The 2018 Annual Meeting will be held April 8-11, 2018, at the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Knight, who is nicknamed “The General,” won 902 NCAA Division I men’s college basketball games, the most all-time at the time of his retirement and currently third all-time behind his former player and assistant coach, Mike Krzyzewski of Duke University. Knight is best known as the head coach of the Indiana Hoosiers from 1971-2000. He also coached at Texas Tech (2001-2008) and at Army (1965-1971). While at Indiana, Knight led his teams to three NCAA championships, one National Invitation Tournament (NIT) championship, and 11 Big Ten Conference championships. He received National Coach of the Year honor four times and Big Ten Coach of the Year honors eight times. In 1984, he coached the USA men’s Olympic team to a gold medal, becoming one of only three basketball coaches to win an NCAA title, NIT title, and an Olympic gold medal.
Nielsen is president and CEO of DTNA and its affiliated companies Freightliner Trucks, Western Star Trucks, Thomas Built Buses, Freightliner Custom Chassis Corporation, and Detroit Diesel Corporation. Since 2001, he has been COO responsible for the entire DTNA manufacturing network, as well as all levels of operations in quality, supplier management, logistics, and customer application engineering. In addition, he has overseen Thomas Built Buses, Freightliner Custom Chassis Corporation and DTNA’s continuous improvement programs. In 1986, Nielsen joined DTNA (then Freightliner Corporation) as an Industrial Engineer and since then has held various positions at DTNA in the U.S. as well as at Daimler’s Commercial Vehicles Divisions in Germany.
TRALA says it is looking forward to these presentations during Tuesday’s General Assembly. For more information on next year’s meeting agenda, travel information and hotel accommodations can be viewed by clicking HERE.
