40 Under 40

Doug Formby's "greatest joy" is uplifting employees. His proudest moment as general manager of Toyota Marin, in San Rafael, Calif., is not his own accomplishments, but instead when his general sales manager was promoted to general manager of another Price Family Dealerships store.

"It's a pipeline of leadership that I'm trying to grow," Formby said. "I'm pushing to get my people moved along, even though it's going to cause me a little bit of heartache when they leave. It's more important to me that they're successful."

Formby nurtures leadership through a combination of inspiration and confidence.

He began selling cars at a Cincinnati dealership while on summer break from classes at the University of California Santa Barbara and was instantly hooked.

After college graduation, he spent 10 years working for Toyota North America in various roles. But Formby was "always envious of the dealer side" and when Toyota asked him to move, he ultimately joined Price Family Dealerships in 2017 as a sales manager.

He was promoted to general manager of Toyota Marin amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The store was struggling, he said, and Formby responded by restructuring to a "one person, one price" sales model.

This involves eliminating the finance and insurance department. Salespeople handle everything, leading to improvements in customer satisfaction and employee engagement and retention, Formby said. The model also has been a major force in not only boosting F&I profitability, but helping the store's profit rise to $7.6 million in 2022 from about $332,000 in 2019.

Formby, a Division 1 swimmer in college who continues to train, hopes to continue to grow with Price Family Dealerships. He is in the process of becoming an owner and is working to purchase a 10 percent stake in Toyota Marin this year.

"My goal is to continue to grow and develop the people below me so that I can give them these opportunities," he said. "And then I will in turn move up and help grow the organization and help other people get the same opportunity that I've had."

— Paige Hodder