Essential Fleet Services has appointed Chris Smith as its new head of marketing.

He joins from The Auto Network where he was heading up their new car lead generation platform carkeys.co.uk.

Smith has 16 years automotive experience, including 14 within the contract hire and leasing industry gained at Leaseplan, where he held a number of management positions in sales and marketing, most recently as general manager of SME and consumer marketing.

He will be based at Essential’s head office in Lincoln and will be responsible for the delivery of the full marketing mix promoting the company's offering of specialist vehicle funding, fleet management, short-term rental and maintenance.

Ed Hummel, sales director at Essential Fleet Services, said: "Chris brings a huge amount of knowledge and experience to the business, not just in marketing but also within the leasing sector.

"He’ll be a great asset to our senior management team and I look forward to working with him as we continue to deliver significant growth at Essential.”