About Trustarian
Mike Tanner, founder of Trustarian.com and local businessman, grew up in Phoenix, Arizona and comes from a long line of business professionals in the automotive industry. It’s this heritage and his connection to Rotary International that encouraged the development of Trustarian Business and Trustarian Vacation By Owner search engines.
Tanner Family History
Coming from a long line of entrepreneurs, Mike is a third generation business owner in the Phoenix area. Mike’s lineage is traceable to his grandfather Ray Korte Sr. who moved his family from New Albany, Indiana for a fresh start, and his father Raymond R. Tanner who moved to Phoenix with the U.S. Army Air Corps where he was assigned to Luke Air Base for pilot training in the early 1940’s.
In 1942, his mother Mary Jean Korte and father Raymond R. Tanner met and after a brief courtship, married to unite the Korte/Tanner families. It was this merging of families, a lot of hard work, and commitment to the automotive industry that fueled the growth of several well respected auto dealerships in the Phoenix metropolitan area.
Ray Korte Rambler-Jeep, Ray Tanner Studebaker-Jeep, Ray Korte Chevrolet, Ray Tanner Volvo and Broadway Volvo, just to name a few, were established over a more than fifty year era spanning three generations of Korte/Tanner family history. In the late 1990’s the family-owned single-point dealerships were sold to mega dealerships offering Mike the opportunity to purchase Ray Tanner Motors Body Shop, converting it into an independent Auto Body Shop called “Tanner Collision.”
Twenty-one years of owning and operating Tanner Collision afforded Mike the opportunity to experience the importance of networking and developing business relationships that would eventually lead to his involvement in Rotary International.
Trustarian History
It was in 2004 that Mike joined the Phoenix West Rotary Club and was introduced to the ethical values of Rotary that mirrored those he grew up with and experienced while working for the family dealerships and operating Tanner Collision.
His passion for Rotary fueled his desire to be club president of Phoenix West. As president during 2011-2012, Mike began to recognize a need to help Rotarians return to their networking roots. Mike also knew there must be a better way and began toying with the idea of helping Rotarians connect club-to-club via the internet, rather than the limited opportunities of member-to-member networking.
In 2022, Mike secured the URL trustarian.com with the intention of creating a worldwide search engine that would encourage Rotarians to first seek out other Rotarians for goods and services and to publicly share the value of doing business with Rotarians. It wasn’t until 2020, when he was freed up from his responsibilities of operating Tanner Collision, that he got serious and connected with fellow Rotarian Mike Whalen of Noptim, a digital strategy company, to help bring his dream into reality.
Built with the ethical integrity of the Rotary Four-Way Test – both Trustarian Business and Trustarian Vacation By Owner are designed to offer Rotarians and the public alike an easy to use online platform to find quality, trustworthy products, services, and vacation rentals offered by Rotarians who embody the Four-Way Test.
There is no other networking site in the world that has this level of Business Trust. You will find the Four-Way Test is not just something Rotarians say. It is what they “Live By”!
