President and Chief Executive Officer, Ganley Automotive Group
Ken Ganley grew up in Brecksville, Ohio where he graduated from Brecksville High School in 1992. He attended Northwood in 1993 and 1994, earning an associate degree in automotive marketing. He married to his high school sweetheart, Niki, who is also a Northwood alum.
Growing up, Ken spent every minute he could in his dad’s car dealerships. Becoming a porter at 12 years old, he swept floors and cleaned cars. Ken recalls telling his dad he would work for free if he were allowed to drive cars on the dealership property. His dad agreed and the rest was history. Ken has been in love with the car business as long as he can remember. At age 16, he became a salesperson, and sold cars on weekends, holidays, and summers, regularly selling 40-60 cars a month. After attending Northwood, he became a Finance Manager and the new car sales manager at his dad’s Honda store in Cleveland. They quickly became one of the largest Honda dealerships in the Midwest, selling 300-350 new Hondas a month.
In December of 2005, together with his dad, they purchased a small Toyota and Mercedes-Benz dual dealership. That tiny dealership is now a campus in Akron that consists of three dealerships selling Toyota, Mercedes-Benz, Maserati and Alfa Romeo. In 2018, the campus sold more than 4,800 vehicles. Over the years following, Ken began to buy his own dealerships and the company grew from 10 rooftops to today’s 35 stores across Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida. In 2018, they sold more than 60,000 vehicles and amassed more than $2 billion dollars in total revenue. Automotive News ranks Ganley Automotive as one of the largest privately held dealership groups in the country.
Part of the culture in the company is giving back to countless charities throughout northern Ohio. Ganley Automotive is a lead sponsor of the Susan G. Komen foundation for breast cancer and the employees take part in their annual run. They also love to give back and support the local school districts in their different dealerships regions.
Together, Ken and Niki have three sons: Kenny Jr., 17, a senior at Brecksville High school who will soon be attending Youngstown State University on a full basketball scholarship; Tyler, 14, a freshman at Brecksville high school, and enjoys playing on the varsity basketball team with his big brother; and Brady, 12, and in sixth grade at Brecksville Middle school, who loves basketball like his brothers.
