Mr. William M. Lehman
William M. Lehman was born and raised in Miami and is a graduate of Miami Edison High School. He also graduated from the University of Alabama, obtained an MBA at Harvard Business School and served 2 years in the United States Army.
In 1967, he took over management of his family-owned Buick dealership in North Miami. His father had operated the automobile business in North Miami since 1936. Since that time, Mr. Lehman has owned automobile dealerships including Toyota, Hyundai, Buick, GMC, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Saab, Mazda, Opel, Mitsubishi, Isuzu, Subaru and Suzuki among other brands.
In addition to running new and used car retail franchises, under Mr. Lehman’s leadership separate automobile finance and leasing companies were established including William Lehman Leasing (since 1968), Affiliated Financial Corporation (a subprime automobile lending business) and Local Finance (a subprime automobile lending company established in 2001).
In 2017, sales by Lehman’s affiliated companies were over $550 million and retail and lease contract financing approached $30 million.
Mr. Lehman currently lives in Aventura with his wife Shirley. He is active in the community having served as the President of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation, Executive Vice President of the Board of Directors of Florida International University as well as the President of the South Florida Auto Dealers Association and the Michael Ann Russell Jewish Community Center.
Mr. Lehman has five children and 12 grandchildren and is an avid art collector, golfer, Dolphins and Heat fan.
Mr. Lehman is currently Chairman of the Board of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in North Miami. His father, Congressman William Lehman, was responsible, in part, for securing a $2.5 million HUD grant to build MOCA. Mr. Lehman’s mother Joan has donated artworks to MOCA’s permanent collection and her name is on the building.
