CHAMPIONMACHINERY - Key Persons
Dale Danahey, President, and Owner of Champion Machinery founded two MAZAK distributorships, sold new MAZAKS for 22 years and has owned five machine tool distributorships during an illustrious career since 1981.
Dale Danahey is widely respected as one of the leading experts in CNC lathes and vertical and horizontal mills. He has been selling CNC machines since 1981. During his career, Dale has founded two MAZAK distributorships, sold new MAZAKs for 22 years, and owned five machine tool dealerships.
Upon graduating with a Business-Marketing degree from Marquette University, Dale began his career selling new MAZAKs in Chicago for Machinery Systems, Inc. (MSI). After five successful years, MSI promoted Dale to General Manager of Machinery Systems North when they purchased the MAZAK distributorship in Wisconsin, where he increased MAZAK sales by 400% in 2.5 years.
In 1988, Dale moved to Florida to establish his own MAZAK distributorship, Premier Machinery. It was the first time in their history that MAZAK awarded a direct sales office to a distributor, which was a monumental decision for a Japanese machine tool builder. In 1992, Dale started Premier Equipment, which would become one of the largest used CNC dealers in the U.S. In 1993, Dale created Premier Engineering when he was awarded the MAZAK direct sales office in Georgia. He owned and managed all three companies for 14 years, growing from 3 employees and $4 million to more than 30 employees and over $40 million in annual sales.
In 2002, Dale was ready for a new challenge and decided to concentrate on used CNC machinery, so he moved his family to Charlotte, NC and founded Champion Machinery. He has been interviewed by Bloomberg and Biz.TV as a leading industry expert.
Dale enjoys spending time with his wife Heidi and four daughters, three of whom live in Charlotte. He travels to numerous NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series races as a proud sponsor of two race teams. An avid sports enthusiast, Dale also attends most Carolina Panther and South Carolina home football games and enjoys golf, water sports and snow skiing
As a Sales Engineer for Champion Machinery, Hunter Roach specializes in buying and selling late-model CNC lathes and mills and is an AMEA Accredited Equipment Appraiser. A graduate of the University of South Carolina, Hunter worked in Sales and New Business Development in the staffing industry in Columbia, SC, before moving to Charlotte to join Champion in 2015. Hunter spends his free time with friends and family and enjoys watching and playing sports.
A graduate of the University of South Carolina, and an AMEA Accredited Equipment Appraiser, Trey has worked as a Sales Engineer for Champion Machinery since 2014. He specializes in both buying and selling DOOSAN, HAAS, MAZAK, DMG MORI, and OKUMA CNC machines. His first experience in the machine tool industry was viewing the latest and greatest manufacturing technology at IMTS. Trey enjoys visiting shops with unique applications for their CNC machines and helping customers come up with an effective plan to buy or sell their CNC machines.