• LDV dealership Chatfields of Sheffield has appointed Graham Simpson as area sales controller. Before joining Chatfields, Simpson worked at Mitsubishi dealership Burrells and before that he was sales manager at Platt Harris for 28 years. He reports to Steve Wright.

  • DAVID Rowlands has been appointed permanent secretary at the Department for Transport. He began his career with IMI and joined the Department of Trade and Industry in the mid-1970s and moved to the Department of Transport in 1983. His many areas of experience include aviation, shipping and ports and railways.

  • ROADSAFE has appointed two new members to its board. Baroness Helene Hayman and Richard Brunstrom join the partnership of automotive businesses, Government and road safety professionals. Hayman is the former road safety minister and Brunstrom is chief constable with North Wales Police and head of road policing at the Association of Chief Police Officers. They join 10 other Roadsafe board members.

  • SEAT UK has expanded its business sales team, which now consists of Nicki Isherwood, Dominic Elms, Oliver Parsons, Jane Brown, Mark Zuminski, David Cockroft and Nicola Graham. Recently appointed as national business sales manager is Dominic Elms, who now takes responsibility for the team and its focus on growing SEAT's fleet business.

  • THE Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) has announced the appointment of its new chairman. Peter de Rousset-Hall takes over from Peter Miles, who has held the post for the past two years. De Rousset-Hall is managing director of Ford Financial, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Ford Motor Company. He was chairman of FLA's motor finance management committee from 2000 to 2002 and has been a board member for four years.

  • THRIFTY Car Rental has made two new appointments. Ian Saxon joins as franchise manager with the remit to develop the number of licensees throughout the UK. Saxon brings over 18 years' experience within the rental industry. Dennis Hennigan has been appointed sales and operations director at Thrifty Car Rental Birmingham. He joins managing director, Zak Zanettou, from his previous role as head of corporate car rental at the company's head office at High Wycombe. Hennigan was also branch manager at Thrifty Birmingham in 1995.

  • ROB Batham has been appointed sales and development manager with Gauntlet, the Yorkshire-based insurance and risk management specialist. Most recently, Batham was development manager with an internet-based claims solution company and has previously worked in the commercial loss adjusting sector.