JUAN Jose Diaz Ruiz has resigned from his job as vice-president for sales and marketing at Toyota Motor Europe. The manufacturer said Diaz Ruiz left for 'personal and family reasons'. Diaz Ruiz joined Toyota Motor Europe in February 1998 as executive vice-president and previously had roles with Ford, Seat and Audi.

ALEXANDER Perk has been appointed to head the newly-developed fleet operations department of General Motors Europe. Perk has been managing director of Opel France since 1993 and during that time is credited with increasing Opel's annual passenger sales from 102,000 to 141,000 units. Perk's successor as Opel France's managing director is Gerard Saint-Martin, who started the role this month. He will be responsible for all Opel, as well as Cadillac and Chevrolet business in France. Saint-Martin was most recently vice-president, Asia-Pacific, for Renault's International Operations Division, based in Singapore.

FORD has appointed Bruce Swift as vice-president for Ford of Europe. He succeeds Hans-Peter Kunze and will be responsible for all Ford purchasing functions in Europe. Swift joined Ford in 1992 as manager of the Supplier Value and, before his latest appointment, was director of vehicle operations purchasing.

VOLVO has appointed Bernard Bradley as its regional communications marketing manager handling all aspects of marketing communications in Ireland, Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, Iceland and the UK. Bradley had been at Volkswagen UK for five years, serving first as fleet marketing manager then national fleet sales manager before becoming communications manager. Volvo, now owned by Ford, has significant global expansion aspirations and Bradley said: 'Volvo gives me a new challenge and an opportunity to have international experience and manage across borders and that is a very real attraction.'

DIETER Woitscheck will assume responsibility for Avis Europe's five major markets of Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the UK, under his new title of chief operating director. Reporting directly to chief executive Mark McCafferty, Woitscheck will also be responsible for group fleet and operations. He will join the board from January 1 next year, from his current position as managing director of the Avis business in Germany.

FORMER president of Goodyear Europe William Sharp is retiring from the group as president of its North American Tyre group. Sharp has chosen to retire after 36 years with the company. He spent four year as president of Goodyear Europe in the 1990s and also served as plant manager of tyre facilities in Amiens, France, and Colmer-Berg, Luxembourg.

PAN-European traffic information and telematics company Trafficmaster Group has promoted Simon Rowland to the position of sales director of Fleetstar Information Systems. Fleetstar is the new Dynamic Fleet Management Product launched by Trafficmaster in May.

EUROPCAR'S fleet and operations director Steve Maltby has been appointed chairman of the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association's rental committee. The organisation, which is a member of the European Car and Truck Rental Association (ECATRA), is the trade association of the daily rental and leasing industry in the UK.

FUEL cell expert Christopher Borroni-Bird has been appointed to the new position of design and vehicle technology interface at General Motors. He will focus on the relationship between technology and design innovations and before joining GM was in technology management at DaimlerChrysler. (August 2000)