As president, George Karolis oversees the firm’s dealership mergers & acquisitions business and shares oversight of the overall firm management and its corporate finance activities. As a tenured automotive retail executive, he brings more than 25 years of experience spanning dealership portfolio management, M&A execution, and real estate strategy.
George is widely regarded as a trusted advisor to dealer principals, public retailers, and investors on growth strategy, consolidation, succession planning, and capital deployment within the evolving automotive retail landscape.
George has a deep network of longstanding relationships across the automotive retail ecosystem, including dealer principals, OEM leaders, private equity investors, lenders, and industry executives.
Prior to joining Presidio in 2019, George spent 18 years at Asbury Automotive Group (NYSE: ABG), where he served as Senior Vice President of Corporate Development & Real Estate. During his tenure, he helped support Asbury’s transformation into one of the nation’s largest automotive retailers, overseeing hundreds of acquisitions, divestitures, and real estate transactions as well as key strategic sourcing initiatives.
Earlier in his career, George worked in the transaction advisory services group at Arthur Andersen LLP, advising private equity firms and strategic buyers on mergers and acquisitions across multiple industries, including automotive retail.
George graduated magna cum laude from Seton Hall University with a B.S. in accounting.
George is licensed at FINRA, please see FINRA’s BrokerCheck for more information.