For Phil Scatena, the second act of his career has been a first-rate success.

After spending 20 years in the financial services industry, Scatena recently celebrated his seventh anniversary as a franchisee for Grease Monkey, having revived four previously underperforming locations in suburban Chicago and recently taking on a fifth. His accomplishments have earned him the distinction of being the 2026 NOLN Operator of the Year presented by Mobil 1.

After two decades in the banking industry, including 13 years in various leadership roles with Bank of America and Barclays Investment Bank, Scatena reached a crossroads in 2019: His position with Barclays was being relocated to the bank’s headquarters in London. Scatena could either move to the United Kingdom or pursue a new job.

Rather than uproot his family to leave the U.S. for Barclays or stay in midtown Manhattan for another position in the financial industry, Scatena decided to take on a completely different challenge, although at first, he wasn’t exactly sure what that would be.

“At that point, you're in a transition phase in your career and you started looking,” Scatena says. “What am I going to do now? So, I started looking for jobs. It’s kind of hard to find something because I was very specific within the emerging markets. We started thinking about what if we open a business or what if we buy a business?  I looked at many different things.”

Scatena says he considered opportunities in the signage sector and waste removal, among other options, before deciding quick lube checked all the boxes.

“I looked at so many things,” he says. “We ended up going for the quick lube industry, with Grease Monkey specifically, because it was something I had familiarity with. I always worked on my motorcycles, kind of worked in cars—not deep into it, but something that was a hobby, something I enjoyed. And I thought the transition was going to be probably not easier, but it was something that I had some kind of familiarity with.”

Grease Monkey was especially appealing to Scatena, he says, because the company was not affiliated with any specific major oil brand, and he also felt comfortable with the company’s organizational structure and flexibility.

New Destination

Plans were put into motion for Scatena to open a newly constructed Grease Monkey location in Texas, but a different, intriguing opportunity with the brand emerged.

“Everything was ready (in Texas),” Scatena says. “I had already paid Grease Monkey and everything. At some point, I was made aware about these four locations for sale (in the Chicagoland area). I was like, ‘If I get four locations instead of one, the chances that I’ll turn these around quicker (are) probably higher than just starting a new business.’ Even though those were four underperforming locations, I figured we already have customers and we’re already running, so I would probably spend a lot less buying the four locations as opposed to starting one completely new.”

With those calculations in mind, Scatena decided to forgo the new, state-of-the-art, six-bay facility in Texas to instead embrace the challenge of reviving four struggling stores in the suburbs of Chicago.

Scatena says in his first months with Grease Monkey, he envisioned eventually taking a more hands-off approach to the work happening in the bays, devoting more time to big-picture items like financials and business strategy from his office, which is stationed in a trailer at the back of the property of his Lisle location. Scatena quickly realized that he would need to get into the bays to learn the intricacies of the operation first-hand.

“It’s kind of far off from what I thought it was going to be, but now I really enjoy it. To me, a good day is the day I’m over there working with them (in the shop) instead of being here, stuck in a room in front of the computers,” says Scatena.

Although he had done some tinkering with his personal vehicles in his spare time, Scatena says he had no illusions about his knowledge of working in the automotive aftermarket industry when he arrived at his new shops. His first days on the job weren’t easy, he says.

“In the beginning, I literally knew nothing about what they were doing in those days. I had to learn everything from scratch, really,” Scatena says. “No matter how many times I've been around cars looking at things, it wasn't like I was really working on them like these guys, So the only option I had was to learn.”

Scatena’s education began by working on the floor alongside his lube techs, starting as a courtesy technician before moving on to working under the hood. Each day presented a new learning opportunity, says Scatena, whether it was figuring out how to deal with a stuck filter cover, a stripped plug, or a larger issue.

Responsibilities do keep Scatena tethered to his office, but he gets help from his wife, Viviane. At least a couple times per month, Scatena is able to get back into the bays to work with his teams.

Leading with a Steady Hand

Mike Donahue, an inside sales representative for Service Champ, has worked with Scatena since the latter came on board with Grease Monkey in 2019. Donahue says the two have worked well together over seven years, particularly as it relates to inventory management at Scatena’s shops.

“He’s always very level-headed, and he is just a pleasure to work with overall,” Donahue says of Scatena. “He doesn’t get too worked up or upset about things. He goes with the flow in regard to orders and then things arriving. I would just say he’s very level-headed and professional.”

That calm demeanor quickly became an invaluable asset, as less than a year in, the COVID-19 pandemic added a significant degree of difficulty to the challenge of turning around a group of underperforming stores. Scatena’s network of Grease Monkey locations includes two stores in Round Lake Beach, one in Lisle, one in Sycamore, and a recently added fifth in Naperville. Righting the ship at the original four locations started with improving customer service, which would, in turn, lead to higher Google ratings.

Each location presented unique challenges as well, Scatena notes. In addition to facing competition from 25 nearby automotive shops, the Lisle store was severely understaffed when Scatena arrived and finding qualified candidates was difficult. Scatena turned to the local Universal Technical Institute in Lisle and reached an agreement in which his Grease Monkey store would help train students in exchange for their services.

“That worked out really well for us, especially in the beginning, because we were able to staff this store pretty quickly,” he says.

One of two shops in Round Lake Beach struggled because of a low-visibility location and unusual store hours that included being closed for lunch. The schedule was adjusted and marketing was ramped up to draw attention to the store. The second Round Lake location, meanwhile, offered $19.99 oil changes—an enticing deal for customers, but an untenable strategy for the business.

“They were bringing in cars, but we were not making any profit on those oil changes, and also they were not buying anything extra,” Scatena says. “And the wait was long, so we would kind of scare away the customers who might be buying more auxiliary services. We stopped the $19.99 oil change, which was a risk because we drove customers away, but it worked out.”

Despite drawing in fewer customers, the shop increased its profitability by more than twofold.

Asked if his banking background helped guide his strategy for improving the finances of his Grease Monkey stores, Scatena says his prior experience shaped his approach in two ways.

“First, I’m very process-oriented,” he says. “By working in big corporations, I learned to be … more structured in the way I do things, and I passed on that structure to the stores and to the employees. For everything, we have a process now. There’s a way to do things. What that does is it takes off of me a load of managing the stores because I know they’re going to be following processes.

“The other thing is I like to do everything by the numbers. … I look at my repeat customers, new customers, the percentage of Google reviews we're getting versus the number of cars we're getting, how many emails we're getting from the customers. I look at everything. I like to look at all those numbers in detail so I understand what's going on. Doing statistics for everything and trying to know what's going on behind your store performance. We have more customers now. What's working, why do we have more customers, or why we have less customers?”

Another way in which Scatena has boosted his stores’ performance is by embracing new services and technologies. His Grease Monkey shops now service EVs, offering brake lubrication, tire rotations, and filters. The added services required an investment in specialized equipment. Tesla, for example, requires a special box to lift its vehicles, while certain makes of newer ICE vehicles need proprietary scanners. Scatena has also added updated air conditioning service equipment with a new Freon.

“We try everything that comes up that we could try,” he says. “If it’s a new chemical or a new tool, something that can give us a new service or make something we do a little cheaper, a little faster, we’ll try it.”

In aggregate, the changes Scatena has implemented across his stores have been numerous and significant—and also very effective.  

In 2019, when Scatena took over midway through the year, the Lisle location made $260,000. By 2025, the shop had nearly tripled its sales. Also in 2025, his two Round Lake Beach locations hit $1 million in sales, more than doubling their revenue since being acquired by Scatena. At a time when operators across the industry have been challenged by extended drain intervals and fewer customer visits, one of Scatena’s Round Lake Beach locations increased its car count by more than 1,000 vehicles to more than 7,000 in 2025.

In 2026, stores in Lisle, Round Lake Beach, and Sycamore were ranked No. 1 in their respective cities’ BusinessRate “Best of” rankings of automotive service providers. (Scatena’s second location in Round Lake Beach finished second behind its sister store.) All five Grease Monkey locations operated by Scatena have at least a 4.6 rating (out of 5) on Google reviews as of mid-August.

While he considers the progress made across his stores “a pretty good accomplishment,” Scatena says he is most proud of the teams he has built at each location.

“The very first thing is that I think that, as a company, we were able to build a really great, reliable team,” he says. “That was one of the greatest challenges I had in the beginning, and right now, that is a solid part of my business—our team. We have key people in the stores, and they’re happy working for the company. Building that team and keeping them for so many years—a lot of my employees, my managers, they’ve been with me for seven years, the whole time.

“That’s the main thing I’m proud of, just making sure they’re happy, they’re trained, and they’re doing a good job.”

Outside of work, Scatena has little down time. He is a founding member of the Kiwanis Club of Lisle, as a well as a director for the Lisle Area Chamber of Commerce. On weekends, he enjoys outdoor activities with his family, including kayaking and bicycle riding.

“I try to separate some time for my family, because otherwise, it’s not even worth it, right?” he says.

As for his next act, Scatena says he hopes to continue building his business. Once operations at the recently acquired Naperville location stabilize, he aims to take on a sixth shop.

“And we’re always thinking about diversifying,” he adds.