Zane Rathwick Rejoins Autobytel’s IT Department

Autobytel Inc. has named Zane Rathwick VP of development for IT. Rathwick returns to Autobytel from successful tenures at Local.com and Kelley Blue Book where the programs he developed resulted in significant traffic increases.

At Autobytel, he is charged with developing new technologies and enhancing existing systems to support the company’s renewed focus on leveraging its historically popular consumer websites for the attraction of high quality, in-market automotive consumers.

“We are very pleased that Zane, who is one of the true technology pioneers and innovators of the automotive Internet, is rejoining Autobytel. No one understands the technologies behind driving cost-effective, high value automotive consumer traffic better than Zane,” said Autobytel President and CEO Jeffrey Coats in a statement. “

Rathwick initially joined Autobytel in 1998, when he led the company’s technology development teams that developed the Web engine that powered the company’s sites -- Autobytel.com, Autoweb.com, CarSmart.com, Car.com. He also developed the initial version of the company’s customer lead routing engine, delivering millions of customer leads to Autobytel dealers, and led the integration of CarSmart.com and Autoweb.com into the Autobytel platform following their acquisitions.

Rathwick led the group that developed a search engine marketing system which automated the tracking reporting and bidding of over a half a million keywords across all the major search engines and was unique in the industry for its ability to function simultaneously for both lead and ad traffic acquisition.

Rathwick then served at Local.com. In 2007, Rathwick joined Kelley Blue Book as Director of Online Marketing.

Autobytel Inc. is an Internet automotive marketing services company that helps dealers and manufacturers sell cars and related products and services.