• MARK Lovett, van brand manager for Renault UK, has been promoted to national van fleet sales manager. Lovett was responsible for the successful introduction of the new Renault Trafic in 2001, which won the Fleet News medium van of the year award this year. He is being replaced by Sandy MacRitchie.

  • FORD has a new manager of corporate affairs. Tom Malcolm takes over from John Gardiner, who moves to head up Ford's government affairs team. Malcolm has spent this year promoting the firm's centennial celebrations and will continue to be responsible for heritage programmes. In another area, Lydia Aydon, Ford's news manager, has taken advantage of the company's sabbatical scheme to take a year out to travel round the world. And Garry White is to leave Ford after nearly five years in government and corporate affairs.

  • LEASEDRIVE has appointed Karen Bowen as UK business development manager. She was previously with Arval PHH for eight years, most recently as head of employee car ownership and personal motoring. Bowen also has extensive fleet experience with Interleasing, where she held business development and major contract hire account management roles.

  • SIMON Thomas takes on the new role of UK sales director with Nissan GB. He was previously UK marketing director. Thomas' time with Nissan spans more than 12 years and, with combined motor industry experience of 27 years, he brings a wealth of expertise to his new role. Paul Willcox will take over Thomas' role from November 1 when he returns to the UK group from Nissan Europe, where he was general manager, strategy and business planning.

  • INITIAL City Link has appointed Paul Tucker to run its new depot in Aylesford, near Maidstone. Tucker has 25 years of experience in logistics having worked for York International and Thorn EMI. His new role as franchisee will involve developing the business throughout the area from Rochester to Dartford and from Bromley to Maidstone.

  • WS2, the telematics company, has appointed its first chief executive officer. Tony Arnold worked for more than two decades in the computer hardware, software and communications, 10 of those as a main board director. WS2, originally set up as WebSoft in 1997, currently delivers telematics solutions to end-user clients mainly in the car and commercial vehicle sector.

  • CLOSE Motor Finance has appointed 13 new account managers. The independent provider of finance packages and support insurance services continues its acceleration programme of branch recruitment.
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