The Hall of Fame is an award for people who have made a significant contribution to the collision repair industry, only one person is honoured each year.
This year is third person to be inducted into the Paint & Panel Hall of Fame. Carly Ruggeri of Europanels in Geelong, Victoria was born into the industry with mum and dad owning a collision repair shop. She chose to embrace the industry and with her brother, Jake, took over the shop and carried on with an uncompromising approach to perfect repairs and a laser focus on customer satisfaction - as any assessor who deals with them well knows. The pair are blazing a new trail, steering the family business to greater success with daring, out of the box thinking that sets them apart for all the right reasons.
Already a well-established Subaru Certified Collision Repairer in 2018 within 12 months of taking over the business, the siblings embarked upon rigorous training and assessments to become a Tesla Approved Collision Centre and now also VW group approved including Audi, being 1 of only 4 businesses in Victoria to have earned the Audi Approved Repairer title.
But it wasn't for this that we honour our Hall of Fame inductee . It is for her tireless campaigning on behalf of the industry. Despite having her own business to run she is always fighting for a fairer playing field for repairers and better outcomes for the motoring public.
She has worked closely with VACC on advocating for the body repair sector for the last decade with six of those years as Chair of VACC Body Repair Division and 3 years as Deputy Chair of AMBRA (Australian Motor Body Repairers Association) being the first woman, and the youngest person to do so. It is important to her and her brother Jake, to dedicate time with industry associations to assist in driving change, better standards, skills and contribute in the ever-evolving industry policy priorities.
Most recently, she has pitched her position to sit on VACC Executive Board, determined diversity at the top level will become a reality for the Chamber.
This year’s recipient is one of the key creators and influencers on the legal publications currently being released by MTAA, has been heavily engaging with politicians at Parliament House in Canberra on behalf of the industry. Carly has dedicated a great deal of her own time behind the scenes with the lead up to the introduction of heavier penalty enforcement under Unfair Contract Terms Legislation 2023, providing evidence and insight to state and federal government.
It is no surprise she has been invited as a guest speaker in many events in interstate and internationally by all types of automotive stakeholders.
In her acceptance speech Carly paid tribute to her brother Jake for supporting her in her efforts on behalf of the industry and taking on the sole running of the business allowing her to have the time to undertake the work she does for MTAA and VACC.