AUGUSTA — Charles Shuman, president of Charlie’s Auto Group, a Honda, Jeep, Kia, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Subaru and Toyota dealer in Augusta, is a nominee for the 2016 TIME Dealer of the Year award.

Shuman is one of a select group of 50 dealer nominees from across the country who will be honored at the 99th annual National Automobile Dealers Association Convention and Exposition in Las Vegas on April 1, 2016.

The TIME Dealer of the Year award is one of the automobile industry’s most prestigious and highly-coveted honors. Recipients are among the nation’s most successful auto dealers who also demonstrate a long-standing commitment to community service.

Shuman, 69, was chosen to represent the Maine Automobile Dealers Association in the national competition — one of only 50 auto dealers from 16,000 nationwide — nominated for the 47th annual award. A panel of faculty members from the Tauber Institute for Global Operations at the University of Michigan will select one finalist from each of the four NADA regions and one national Dealer of the Year.

Shuman, a 1964 graduate of Old Orchard Beach High School, earned a degree in science vocational technology at the University of Southern Maine in Portland in 1979 by attending night school for 10 years.

He began his career at Henley-Kimball Co., a Portland dealer, where he rose to parts manager, and then at American Motors Corp., where he became district parts and service manager for all of Maine, New Hampshire and sections of Massachusetts.

In 1986, Shuman partnered with a dealer he knew to open a Subaru store in Augusta. Within five years, he bought out his partner. Today, Charlie’s Auto Group is valued at $60 million, according to Shuman.

Shuman estimates that he has donated more than $2 million to local charities and organizations, made major contributions to health care initiatives in the area and has sponsored community programs.

Among the awards Shuman has received, he says he is most proud of the 2014 Kennebec Valley Chamber of Commerce’s Special Service Award and the 2015 Maine Jewish Museum’s Lifetime Achievement Award.