Nigel Butler, commercial director of Renault Trucks, is the new chair of the SMMT’s (Soecity of Motor Manufacturers and Tracers) commercial vehicle group, taking over from Penny Randall, also of Renault Trucks, who has now moved on to a new role in the industry.
Trailer manufacturer Montracon has appointed Paul Avery managing director. He joins the business from Schmitz Cargobull, where he worked for 24 years, rising from design engineer to managing director, leading the company into new high volume sectors.
Sean Dignan, Hugh Hamblin and Dean Armstrong have been unveiled as the winner and runners-up respectively in this year’s Mobil Delvac 1 Driver Efficiency Challenge for the McLaren-Honda truck fleet. The contest – sponsored by ExxonMobil’s Mobil Delvac 1 brand of synthetic heavy-duty diesel engine oil – ran from the Spanish Grand Prix (8 May 2015) to the Italian Grand Prix (4 September 2015).
FTA (Freight Transport Association) head of vans and LCVs Mark Cartwright won a top citation at the What Van? Annual awards in London late last year. Acknowledging the award, Jim Magner, FTA’s member relations manager, said: “Mark’s passion for both recognising and raising standards in van operations has been obvious to all of us at FTA since he was appointed head of vans.
Oliver Sanger has been appointed business development manager at Autoglass, responsible for prospecting new business and developing customer relationships among fleets, brokers and local trade accounts. Sanger started his career as an automotive glazing technician for Autoglass. He was most recently with Lubetech, looking after clients such as Coca-Cola and Airbus.
epyx has announced three new director level appointments. Aditya Varadpande now heads up the growth, marketing and international departments. David James is the new commercial director focusing on the company's telesales and web distribution capabilities. And Nik Sherwood is the new director of software development.
Morris Lubricants has strengthened its sales team by appointing Simon Brown area sales manager for East Anglia. He moves from BP Castrol where he was territory manager for East Anglia and the northern Home Counties.
Yorkshire-based MAN area technical manager for aftersales Steve Green has clocked up 40 years with the company and almost one million miles forging relationships with MAN customers. He received anniversary congratulations from managing director Simon Elliott.
David S Graziosi is the new president of Allison Transmission Holdings. He moves up from chief financial officer with immediate effect. In his expanded role, Graziosi will oversee operations and purchasing, quality and reliability, legal/corporate affairs and communications, HR, and information systems and services, in addition to his responsibility for financial and treasury activities.
Global logistics company Transmec UK has strengthened its senior team with the appointment of Graham Astle as its new transport manager. An experienced logistics professional, Astle, who is based at Transmec UK’s West Thurrock depot, will be responsible for overseeing lorry movements and maximising the efficiency of Transmec’s UK operation.
Louise Gunby, operations manager for the Leeds distribution centre at Yusen Logistics, has begun a three month secondment to Transaid’s professional driver training project in Zambia, helping the charity to improve the quality of training delivered by the programme.
John Iain Barrowman, Cummins vice president of high horsepower operations and a senior director of Cummins, has been awarded an MBE in the New Year 2016 Honours List in recognition of his contribution to British Industry. Barrowman has overseen the development of Cummins UK operations into a world-class centre of manufacturing excellence, enabling a major growth in export business which represented 78% of total sales in 2014.
Stuart Jackson has been appointed business development director for Bridgestone. He will support all departments in the UK and Ireland, as well as the Nordic countries, and will manage the delivery of key projects, reporting to managing director Robin Shaw.
Matt Scott has joined Terberg DTS (UK) as sales manager for the Kinglifter range of truck and trailer mounted forklifts. In this newly created role, Scott will report to Robin Johnson, head of rental and special products.
The Isuzu Truck Parts Manager of the Year Award 2015 was scooped for the second time by Matt Stubbs, representing the Exeter based dealership, Harry Moore Commercials. Stubbs first won the award in 2013.
Among key new appointments at Fraikin are Chris Longmuir, new head of public sector, and Simon Johnstone, who will target growth with blue-chip businesses. Longmuir was previously area sales manager and regional development manager at Northgate Vehicle Hire. Johnstone joins from Gulliver’s Truck Hire where he was head of business for Manchester.