Enterprise Rent-a-car's Mike Nigro has been appointed as senior vice president of European operations. 

He previously served as managing director UK and Ireland for the past six years and will be taking over from Jim Burrell, who is retiring from the company.

Nigro joined the company nearly 31 years ago as a graduate on the Management Trainee Programme in Southern California. 

He progressed through the rental ranks in the US and in 2006 accepted a promotion to general manager of South East England. He was subsequently promoted to corporate vice president and then senior vice president of UK and Ireland operations (managing director).

During his time in charge of UK and Ireland operations, Enterprise has acquired the Burnt Tree commercial vehicle rental and City Car Club car sharing businesses, grown its fleet to more than 80,000 vehicles, and now has in excess of 400 branches in the UK and Ireland.

Nigro will be taking over Enterprise’s European operations from Jim Burrell, who will retire from the business in July.

Burrell, who has also been with Enterprise for more than 30 years, came to run Enterprise’s UK operations in 1997 when the business had only a handful of branches. He subsequently oversaw its expansion throughout the UK and into other European markets such as Ireland, Germany, France and Spain, as well as further afield.

Pam Nicholson, president and chief executive officer of Enterprise Holdings, said: “Jim Burrell’s retirement is undoubtedly a loss for Enterprise, as he was one of the pioneers that helped build our European operations into the highly successful business that it is today. I’ve known and worked with Jim for most of his years at Enterprise and have witnessed first-hand the positive impact he has had on our business and on the careers of many hundreds of employees at all levels.

“Over the course of his career, Jim and his teams have been awarded numerous internal corporate awards and many of his employees have gone on to senior level positions within the company. He will be greatly missed both as a valued colleague and friend. We offer him all the very best wishes for the future.”

“Mike has a proven track record of growing the Enterprise business in both the US and UK, while retaining the focus on exceptional customer service that defines our company. He’s done a remarkable job of leading and developing our UK operations and he’ll now bring that same expertise and experience to the broader European market,” added Nicholson.