Alan Ellison, previously parts director, who joined Imperial Commercials in 2017 following a long career with DAF Trucks, has been appointed to the position of commercial director. Earlier in 2017, Rob Truscott joined the Imperial Group as CEO in the UK following a similar role with Imperial South Africa. Truscott’s appointment coincided with Imperial’s acquisition of Pentagon Motor Holdings last year, and the subsequent restructuring of the Imperial Group in the UK. The Imperial Group, DAF’s largest UK dealer with 25 franchised locations, is now organised to reflect distinct operational divisions including car, van and truck expertise.
Guy Pulham
Guy Pulham has begun his new role as chief executive officer of heating oil trade association The Federation of Petroleum Suppliers (FPS). He says: “I want to develop a strategy for the FPS’s longer-term within the next 100 days, but I want input from staff, FPS Council and members to create that strategy. The FPS is vital to the sector. It’s the collective voice for the industry, the connecting bridge between the members and Government. The FPS act as guardians of standards for the oil distribution industry ensuring best practice and has a voice when it matters so it is vital that any strategy for the future is created with FPS member involvement.” He has almost 30 years’ experience of the upstream and downstream oil industry, from economic, analytical, strategy and sales roles within Phillips 66. He recently had responsibility for the management of five transport haulier contracts across the UK.
Aditya Varadpande
Aditya Varadpande has been appointed as the new managing director of motor industry e-commerce specialist epyx. He joined the company in 2015 as director of international business, growth and marketing, following its acquisition by Fleetcor in late 2013. He was previously commercial director and European marketing director for B2B industrial and consumer products company Danaher.
James Colbourne, 45, has been appointed to the position of regional executive director, Scotland for Scania, based at Bellshill, near Glasgow. He joined Scania in 2016 as regional sales director for Scania Scotland, and has rapidly established himself with customers and staff as a key member of the Scania team north of the border. Prior to Scania, Colbourne worked for Mercedes-Benz UK's commercial vehicles operation, where he held a variety of sales and aftersales positions.
Phil Morris
Axis Fleet Management has appointed Phil Morris as a new business development and key accounts manager. He takes on a dual role where he will look after the company’s UK-wide key accounts and manage its retail customer base in the North East of England. Morris moved from CNH Industrial where he was key accounts manager for IVECO customers. Prior to that he spent three years at Fraikin in a UK-wide business development role.
Jamie Watson
Intelligent Telematics, the provider of connected vehicle cameras to the fleet, road transport and insurance sectors, has appointed Jamie Watson as field operations manager. In his new role, he will oversee the engineering team responsible for the installation of the company’s range of devices. Watson joins Intelligent Telematics from vehicle tracking specialist Ctrack, where spent the last four years as national engineering manager.
Chris Coyle, left, with MD Andrew Pryce
Sigmavision has appointed Chris Coyle as sales director. He was previously sales director at Pro-Align, the UK distributor for Hunter Engineering.
Lars Ulph has become UK sales manager of Senseye, the cloud-based software for predictive maintenance.
WABCO Holdings, the supplier of technologies that improve the safety, efficiency and connectivity of commercial vehicles, has appointed Dr. Christian Brenneke as chief technology officer. Brenneke will now combine his current responsibilities as vice president, engineering, with those of the CTO to lead WABCO's global innovation and advanced product development strategy. The company has also invested nearly $30 million in a new Engineering Innovation Centre in Hanover, Germany. Prior to being named vp of engineering in 2015, he was vice president, braking and driver assistance systems. Also, WABCO has appointed Roberto Fioroni to the role of chief financial officer starting in June. He brings over 20 years of financial management experience with multinational companies The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company and General Electric.
Adam Griffiths
ZF Aftermarket has announced that Adam Griffiths will assume the newly created role of marketing lead for the UK and Ireland. He will head a team which will roll out the key messages of the organisation’s aftermarket brand portfolio, including Sachs, Lemförder, TRW, Boge and ZF Aftermarket. In this role, Adam is tasked with uniting the legacy marketing groups of ZF and TRW in the UK & Ireland, to form one cohesive team. Prior to taking on this role, he was employed as a marketing specialist working with the TRW brand.
Charitable news
Helping Hand, the not for profit organisation run by a dedicated committee of Leyland Trucks and PACCAR Parts employees, had its most successful year of fundraising since the programme was started in 1994, raising £50,000 in 2017. Monies raised by the charity are distributed to a variety of causes throughout the year, including the Rosemere Cancer foundation, St Catherine’s Hospice, Derian House Children’s Hospice, North West Air Ambulance and 26 others. 2017 also saw the Helping Hand team encourage the workforce to prove that fitness really does pay – by raising money for charity in a series of endurance challenges. The initiative formed part of the company’s Leyland Life Healthy Workforce programme, encouraging staff to take on a physical challenge and kick start a healthy lifestyle, all while raising money for good causes. One such challenge saw a team of intrepid cyclists from Leyland Trucks complete the Coast to Coast cycle ride – an 84-mile trek from Bowness in Cumbria, to Wall’s End, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. The 11-strong team took eight hours to finish the route and raised £5,000.