• RAY Ryan has retired after many years in the motor industry. In the 1970s he was operations manager with Hertz Rental and became marketing director of Herondrive, part of the Heron Motor Group, in the early 1980s. As sales and marketing director with Fleetlease, Ryan was part of the team that launched the company at the end of the 1980s. In 1991, he joined Ford as national field manager for fleet operations and ended his career with Jaguar where he was corporate development manager from the year 2000.

  • DAVID James has been appointed business development manager for southern England with GE Capital. Previously he spent five years with Kwik-Fit Fleet as a major account manager and, before that, as areas sales manager.

  • GRAHAM Biggs is moving within BMW GB to take up a new role as head of corporate communications for Project Rolls-Royce. The group plans to introduce a new model early next year and Biggs will lead the communications team when the group takes over responsibility for the Rolls-Royce marque.

  • THE RAC has announced new roles within MCR, the automotive support services company forming part of RAC Business Solutions. John England, MCR director, said that four new operations managers will be appointed in the near future to take responsibility for service delivery, pre-delivery inspections, vehicle reconditioning and shared services for the company.

  • MATTHEW Carrington has become the new chief executive for the Retail Motor Industry Federation (RMI). Prior to joining the RMI, Carrington was chairman of the Outdoor Advertising Association. For 10 years he was Conservative MP for Fulham and, previously, an international banker based in London.

  • DEBBIE Singleton has been appointed national account manager, business travel, with Hertz. She rejoins the company after a career break and will report to Seb Goldin, sales manager, business travel. She was previously regional and then national account manager for Hertz UK.

  • FLEETLEASE has appointed three senior sales executives. Alison Newman, Michelle White and Gareth Norman join the sales team reporting to Philip Peace. Newman has eight years' experience in the fleet industry, White worked most recently for Velo and Norman is returning to Fleetlease to cover the M4 and South West areas.

  • PHIL Jones has been appointed business development manager for Volkswagen Financial Services. He reports to Tim Johnson, head of sales at Europcar Fleet Services, and takes responsibility for funding packages and finance options for the company's commercial vehicles.