Stephen Odell has been appointed chief
operating officer at Ford of Europe…
Gianluca Soma is the new CEO of the international
lessor…
Stephen Latham has joined the RMIF as senior
operations manager…
Isobel McKenna has been appointed sales director
at Experian’s Business Information…
Peugeot UK has announced the appointment of Christian
Stein as director marketing…
FORD OF EUROPE
Stephen Odell has been appointed chief
operating officer at Ford of Europe. He will assume responsibility
for the company’s product development, manufacturing, purchasing
and marketing as well as it sales and servicing. He reports to
John Fleming, president and chief executive
officer.
Odell joined Ford in 1980 as a graduate trainee in the UK and
latterly was Ford of Europe’s vice president, marketing, sales and
service. His previously role will be taken by Ingvar
Sviggum.
VAUXHALL MOTOR CO
Jonathan Browning has been promoted to the
position of GM Group vice president, and president of GM Europe,
global sales, service and marketing. Previously he was GE Europe
vice president, sales, marketing and aftersales and chairman of
Vauxhall Motors Ltd.
CW (Bill) Parfitt, currently Vauxhall Motors
Ltd managing director has been appointed Vauxhall chairman with
effect from June 1. Parfitt also retains his existing GM Europe
sales responsibility for GM Europe Fleet and commercial vehicles
activities.
ALD INTERNATIONAL
ALD International has announced a trio of senior appointments.
Gianluca Soma is the new CEO of the international
lessor, which is part of the Société Générale group and present in
39 countries. The former management consultant was the previous CEO
of Hertz Lease Italy, taken over by ALD in 2002; Soma became ALD’s
group regional director, then group deputy CEO.
Pascal Serres has been appointed new deputy
CEO; he first joined Société Générale in 1988 and was made MD of
Sogelease UK in 1991, with appointments as regional director and
director of sales and marketing at ALD International following in
2000 and 2003.
Tim Albertsen has been named new chief
operating officer at the lessor; when the company of which he was
MD, Axus Denmark, was bought by ALD in 2003, he was made a regional
director. Also on ALD International’s executive committee are chief
finance officer Mike Masterson, and chief
information officer Laurent Hallermeier.
GRS
Re-marketing company GRS has promoted David
Grice, Danny Hartshorne and Julie
Sayce to the positions of procurement director, sales
director and operations director respectively. Grice joined the
company eight years ago as a buyer and latterly had
responsibilities for team and contracts. Hartshorne was previously
general sales manager. Sayce, who started her career with GRS’s
parent company the Greenhous Group, headed a team responsible for
maintaining service levels.
RETAIL MOTOR INDUSTRY FEDERATION
Stephen Latham has joined the RMIF as senior
operations manager for the RMIF National Franchised Dealers
Association. He is a former car dealer with over 35 years’
experience in the retail motor sector. In his current role he will
provide support and advice to members on a day-to-day basis as well
as hands-on operational guidance to dealers across the regions of
the UK.
Frank Finch has been appointed as the head of
Motorcycle Associations for the RMIF. He will lead the RMI
Motorcycle Retailers Association and RMI Motorcycle Rider Training
Association, co-ordinating campaigning activities. Finch has worked
in the motorcycle sector for some 18 years. He previously held
positions in Datatool and the Motorcycle Industry Association. He
was previously RMIF head of Motorcycles between 2001 and 2005.
TOYOTA FLEET
Toyota Fleet has appointed Richard Balshaw as
general manager, replacing Tim Copland, who takes on the new role
of general manager, dealer development. Balshaw has worked for
Toyota for 14 years; in 2006 he was promoted to the post of general
manager, aftersales. He will report to Michael Cole, director of
sales and aftersales operations.
EUROPCAR
UK GROUP David Alexander has been
promoted to operations director for Europcar and National Car
Rental UK (National). He has responsibility for a combined network
of 250 Europcar and National locations throughout the UK following
the acquisition of the European operations of National by Europcar
UK this March. He joined the company in 2001 as sales and marketing
director and was promoted to operations and franchise director in
2004.
David McNeill has been promoted to corporate
sales director at Europcar. Previously, he headed the international
corporate sales team at National with responsibility for managing
customer accounts across Europe, Africa and the Middle East in
addition to having links in the US.
EXPERIAN
Isobel McKenna has been appointed sales
director at Experian’s Business Information division with
responsibility for developing the company’s data assets via
third-party channel partners.
VERTU MOTORS
Matthew Jowitt has been appointed general
manager of the company’s Bristol Street Motors Chesterfield
Peugeot. He joined the company in 2007 as used car sales manager at
Chesterfield Vauxhall, having previously had general manager and
sales experience with Reg Vardy and Evans Halshaw.
PEUGEOT UK
Peugeot UK has announced the appointment of Christian
Stein as director marketing. He joins from Peugeot Belgium
where he held the same position for the past four years and where
previously he managed Peugeot Belgium’s dealer group.
Andy Sutton, previously Peugeot’s director
marketing, has taken on the new role of director quality and
service. The new role encompasses training, quality and
service.
NISSAN EUROPE
Brian Carolin, currently senior vice president
sales & marketing at Nissan International SA (NI) has been
appointed senior vice president sales & marketing, Nissan North
America. Simon Thomas has been promoted senior
vice president sales & marketing and Western Europe sales
operations. Formerly he was vice president sales operations,
NI.
At the same time, Toru Saito, currently
managing director regional business unit east, comprising Russia,
Ukraine and Kazakhstan, is promoted to a newly created position of
senior vice president Eastern Europe sales operations, NI.
JAAMA
Fleet software and risk management company Jaama has appointed
Vicki McLauglan as financial accountant.
Previously she spent eight years as the financial accountant and
finance manager for an environmental and regeneration charity in
the W. Midlands.
Motor Finance Issue: 42 – April 08
Published for the web: April 23 08 12:42
Last Updated: May 27 08 10:59
