• BOB Austin has been promoted to national corporate sales manager with Mazda. He was previously regional contract hire manager. He reports to fleet director, Jeremy Thomson.
    Other appointments at Mazda include Bob Breese to regional corporate sales manager (south east) with Jason Jenkins taking responsibility for the south west region. Breese joins Mazda from Vauxhall, where he was fleet sales manager, and Jenkins worked most recently with the Bank of Scotland as regional business development manager. Finally, Simon Haines has been appointed as fleet operations manager and takes responsibility for all Mazda fleet systems.

  • INTERCHANGE Europe, the automotive business news agency, has appointed David Miles as business development manager. He joins founding partners, Chris Wright and Anthony Lewis. Interchange is currently expanding its news coverage, launching a bespoke service at the Detroit Motor Show.

  • VOLKSWAGEN has recruited a new team to support and assist with the delivery of fleet sales and aftersales strategy. The team consists of seven regional fleet managers (RFMs) and two fleet aftersales managers. The existing team of fleet operations managers will focus on direct and national accounts, but also work closely the new RFMs.

  • MNH Vehicle Contracts continues its expansion in the north west with the appointment of Steve Whitmarsh as national sales manager. He was previously with Volvo as leasing and rental development manager in the south of England. Whitmarsh began his career with the Rover Group as a technician apprentice and went on to become its youngest-ever production manager at 21.

  • CLAIRE Dickson has been appointed key account manager for leisure sales with Hertz. Dickson was previously with Thomas Cook TV as channel executive and, before that, was a sales delivery executive with JMC Holidays. She reports to leisure sales manager, Kim Buchanan.

  • LEXUS has appointed Louise Everett as advertising manager. She takes responsibility for advertising at all levels and reports to Lexus marketing's general manager, David Brimson. Everett was previously with IBM as advertising and brand manager.

  • MIKE Coote has been appointed aftermarket sales and marketing director with Bosal. He joined the company in 1998 as national accounts manager but has held the post of marketing manager for the past three years.