Fleet Logistics has appointed Dr Gianni Granata as chief commercial officer, replacing Vinzenz Pflanz who is leaving the company to take up a new role as chief sales officer for Sixt Leasing in Germany.

Granata, 51, is a graduate of the Milan School of Economics where he specialised in marketing. He has spent all his professional life in the automotive industry and has been with Fleet Logistics for nine years.

He is currently chief regional officer (CRO) for Europe South which covers Italy, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Greece and Israel, and also serves on the board of the Fleet Logistics Group.

In his new role, he will be responsible for Fleet Logistics’ international sales and account management across Europe, including sales steering, sales support, CIM (customer interaction management) quality management, contracts and IT. He will continue in his position as CRO for Europe South for the time being.

“When I assume my new position of CCO in January, my primary objective will be in leading the sales team in Europe and bringing some of my own personality and Latin outlook to the role,” said Granata.

“We will have a strong focus on supporting the creation and continuation of strong relationships with all existing customers.

“One of my main goals will be to create a happy, enthusiastic sales team able to bring our clients to the next level of fleet management:  that of driver education.

“I believe that only with an appropriate influence on the driver’s behavior will it be possible to optimize all the efforts developed in recent years in terms of procurement optimization and process efficiency,” he added.

Fleet Logistics currently has in excess of 180,000 vehicles under contract across 27 countries, having seen growth of almost 25% this year.

Rainer Laber, CEO at Fleet Logistics, said: “We would like to wish Gianni all possible success in his new role as CCO at Fleet Logistics and are confident that he will continue to provide the professionalism, enthusiasm and intelligence that he has delivered so far in his career with us.

“At the same time, we would like to wish Vinzenz well in his new role at Sixt Leasing and to thank for him all his hard work over the years at both Fleet Logistics and at our parent company, TÜV SÜD.”