Rock stars aren’t born — they’re made. It takes the right ingredients to become a star, and for Tim Winkeler, president and CEO of VIP Tires & Service, those qualities boil down to a few key virtues: a willingness to listen, faith and discipline.
Although Winkeler runs the show at VIP Tires & Service, he’ll be the first to tell you that the company’s success is a team effort. So when he makes decisions for the company, he first asks employees what they think would be best. For instance, one internal staff survey changed how VIP Tires & Service handles ASE certification reimbursement as an employee benefit.
Tim’s sense of discipline touches nearly all aspects of his life, and this is particularly evident when considering his faith. As a proud Catholic, he attends a men’s group at Holy Martyrs in Falmouth, Maine every Saturday morning at 6:30. It was through this group that he met the church’s deacon, who thought Tim might make a good deacon candidate himself.
“It is kind of like we’re all working to earn a master’s degree in theology. It is also a monthly meeting with a priest with a deacon couple. Then, in addition to the college coursework, there are other trainings we go through with priests from the dioceses on different ways to understand the mass and the liturgical rituals,” he says. “I’ve been in the program about two-and-a-half years and we have about three years to go. It’ll be summer of 2026 will be ordination, God willing.”
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