Each year the industry eagerly steps up to nominate young people representing a broad range of disciplines. Engineers, product developers, builders, marketing and communications professionals, racers, sales people—you name the category, and there are young experts pushing our industry forward with fresh answers to traditional problems and novel (often high-tech) ways of reaching new heights.

It seems simple enough to elect three industry leaders from an organization that boasts more than 6,500 members. But as the SEMA Board and its Hall of Fame Task Force members will testify, it’s no easy job. How does one—much less a group of many—choose just a handful of people to induct into its annual Hall of Fame? It’s an unenviable task, to say the least.

The SEMA Board of Directors is composed of industry representatives who volunteer their time to lead and guide the association. They are elected by SEMA-member companies and reflect the trade association’s key membership categories: manufacturers, distributors/retailers, manufacturers’ representatives, and services.

The reporter who broke the news of the Ford SVT program that produced the F-150 Raptor, Sean P. Holman has relentlessly covered the pickup truck and SUV beat. His work has been featured in the pages of Truckin’, Four Wheeler, Diesel Power, Recoil and numerous other publications, and he’s currently the Truck Trend Network’s content director at Motor Trend. He’s also the co-host of the long-running, highly rated “The Truck Show” podcast.

In 2016, Marisol Herrera, then 23 and a self-professed “non-car person,” applied for a receptionist’s job at the Zimmerman Automobile Driving Museum, a small private collection in El Segundo, California. Six years later, Herrera now serves as the museum’s executive director, overseeing a collection of more than 130 vehicles and a full schedule of public events, including car shows, children’s programs and weekly cruise-ins and ride-and-drives. Her community outreach efforts have been credited for quadrupling the museum’s annual attendance over the past three years. In recognition of her accomplishments, she was named one of SEMA News’ “35 Under 35” rising industry stars for 2021.

At just 21 years old, Christopher Polvoorde added some new hardware to an amazing trophy case. He passed by friends, competitors, and some of his heroes on his way to taking first place in the 2022 King of the Hammers Toyo Tires Desert Challenge in the T2 class. SEMA News caught up to Polvoorde to talk about his experience.

Growing up in Ohio, Chris Kersting had five older brothers, “and they were all bigger than me,” he recalled. One morning as he played outdoors with the older boys swinging on vines, he fell and broke his wrist, earning a trip to the hospital. Returning that afternoon with a cast, he again joined his brothers, this time climbing onto a platform in an apple tree. When he got knocked off the platform, he broke the other arm and went right back for another cast. “I think the same shift was still on at the hospital,” he laughed.

Longtime followers of the automotive aftermarket need no introduction to Jim McFarland. Formerly an editor at Hot Rod who attended the first-ever SEMA Show, he became renowned for his work at Edelbrock as vice president of R&D through the ‘70s and ‘80s. Later, he worked in marketing and engineering positions at companies including Flowmaster, Hedman and Hypertech. He is the author of more than 400 technical articles, including SAE papers and publications for the motorsports, TV and outdoor markets. He was SEMA’s Person of the Year for 1985, and he was inducted into the SEMA Hall of Fame in 2001.