President & CEO Lazydays RV SuperCenter – Tampa, Florida
Over 28 years ago Don Wallace sold his first trailer for $500 and his vision unfolded into what has become the largest RV dealership in the world. Don Wallace is president, CEO and founder of Lazydays RV SuperCenter in Seffner, Florida, just east of Tampa. This 150-acre complex has become a landmark destination in the RV industry. As a young boy in his native Tennessee, Don began writing down his goals, a practice he continued when his family moved to Florida. Upon his high school graduation, Don returned to Tennessee to tackle tomato farming because of its challenging reputation. Nine years later, ready for a new challenge, he re-joined his father H.K. and younger brother Ron in Tampa with an idea for a landscaping business. However, when Don sold that first RV trailer, then a second and a third, he knew he had found his niche. In 1976, he persuaded his father and brother to go into the RV business, and Lazydays was born with two trailers and very little capital on a 1.75-acre lot. With no background in the RV business, Don read everything about management and sales, and looked to motivational books that reinforced what he already believed in: creating customers for life. By 1986, there were six other Lazydays stretching from Fort Myers to Zephyrhills. Don focused the organization on training and customer service and to achieve his long-term goals, closed all of the centers except for the original one. Annual sales increased and a momentum built that would keep Lazydays growing annually — with sales increasing from nearly $250 million in 1996, when he moved the thriving business to the Seffner complex, to over $800 million in 2004. In 1999, Don sold a majority ownership in Lazydays to his employees. Subsequently the company was acquired by a New York-based private equity firm in early 2004. Don remains as the company’s president and CEO. Don and his wife Erika have two young children, Donnie and Alexa. Having built his dream on the loyalty of customers, Don and his wife are loyal in giving b
