The two UK traffic commissioner vacancies created by last October’s retirement of Philip Brown (south eastern and metropolitan traffic area) and Tom Macartney (north eastern traffic area) have been filled. Nick Denton has been appointed traffic commissioner for the south east and Kevin Rooney for the north east. Both are to start their new jobs “in the spring”, according to the Department for Transport. Transport secretary Justine Greening is responsible for both appointments.
At Iveco’s Watford, Hertfordshire-based sales and marketing operation for the UK and Irish Republic, Marta Nappo’s appointment as marketing director has been confirmed. Mrs Nappo, 34, reports to Iveco UK managing director Luca Sra and succeeds Andrea Bucci, promoted last year to general manager of Iveco’s sales and marketing operation in Italy after five years in the UK (Commercial Vehicle Engineer July 2011).
Mrs Nappo joined Iveco in her native Italy early in 2002 as a business process analyst. Two years later she was promoted to used vehicles marketing manager and two after that to district manager. For three years before coming to the UK last year Mrs Nappo was Iveco’s commercial logistics manager, based at the Fiat Industrial company’s Turin head office. She has a degree in economics from Genoa University.
The Institute of the Motor Industry group (IMI), based in Hertfordshire, is seeking to fill 14 new posts created as a result of having won a £3.1 million grant from the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES), a government-funded organisation (and company limited by guarantee) described as a “non-departmental public body” (ndpb). UKCES announced last November that it was about to spend over £61 million on “projects to drive employer investment in skills across all four nations of the UK.” The money is part of the government’s Employer Investment Fund and will go to the 18 “sector skills councils”, including IMI. Skills for Logistics, the sector skills council for freight transport and logistics, has won a grant of £3.9 million in the same scheme.
Jobs being advertised now by IMI as a result of the UKCES grant include a home-based business development manager, at a salary up to £38,500; and a marketing and communications director at a salary up to £41,000.
The first chairman of the newly-formed commercial vehicle group of The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders is Gary Whittam, European sales and marketing director at Azure Dynamics, the company supplying the battery-powered electric driveline used in the Ford Transit Connect, among other commercial vehicles. Mr Whittam used to head Ford’s commercial vehicles division in the UK before joining Azure Dynamics.
The expanding UK aftermarket division of vehicle component and workshop equipment supplier Bosch has its first commercial vehicle accounts manager. He is Neil Hearn, who joined Denham, Hertfordshire-based Bosch last month from rival component supplier Hella UK, where he had worked for four years, latterly as business development manager. Mr Hearn, 46, previously worked for AMK, a component remanufacturer, and before that for Hill (Patents), then part of the 3M group.
At the Engineering Council, the UK engineering profession’s regulatory body, Katy Turff is the new international division head, filling the vacancy created by the retirement of Jim Birch. Mr Birch had been in the post for eleven years.
For the past nine years Miss Turff has worked for the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), one of the engineering institutions regulated by the Engineering Council, latterly as programme manager. She previously worked for the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE).
Jaguar Cars’ acclaimed design director Ian Callum has been awarded an honorary degree by Birmingham City University in recognition of over 30 years of “outstanding achievement” in vehicle design. Mr Callum’s motor industry career began in 1978 at Ford, following a degree in vehicle design at London’s Royal College of Art. At Ford he worked in design studios in Japan, Italy, US, Australia and Germany. In 1990 he returned to the UK to join TWR, an Oxford-based high-performance car specialist as chief designer.
Mr Callum moved to Jaguar (then Ford-owned), based at its Coventry design studio, in 1999. Ford sold Jaguar and Land Rover to Tata Motors of India for £1.15 billion in 2008. Jaguar cars designed by Mr Callum and his team since then include the all-aluminium XK, and the XKR-S unveiled at the Geneva motor show last March.
Terrie Clifton started a new job last month as strategic business development manager at Euroway, an expanding, privately-owned Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire-based group specialising in contract hire, fleet management, vehicle maintenance, and van and truck rental. For the past two and a half years Miss Clifton, 33, worked at Culina Logistics, a Shropshire-based food and drink transport specialist, as group compliance manager. For nine years before that she worked for the Freight Transport Association (FTA), latterly as section head for third-party logistics (3pl), parcel carriers and hauliers.
Daf Trucks president Harrie Schippers has taken over from Iveco chief executive Alfredo Altavilla as chairman of the commercial vehicle board of ACEA (Association des Constructeurs Européens d’Automobiles), a big Brussels-based association representing European vehicle manufacturers.
Mr Schippers has been president of Daf Trucks and a vice president of its US-based Paccar parent group since 2010. He has worked for Daf since 1986. The usual term for an ACEA commercial vehicle board chairman is one year.
Daf Trucks parent company Paccar is to have a new director from 23 April this year. He is Mark Schulz, currently chief executive of his own management consultancy firm, M A Schulz and Associates, and a founding partner in Fontinalis Partners, an investment firm specialising in transport technology. Mr Schulz worked for Ford Motor Company for 32 years, as president of international operations from 2005 until he retired in 2007. He has engineering degrees from Valparaiso University, Indiana, and from the University of Michigan. He also has an MBA (Master of Business Administration) degree from the University of Detroit.
At Paccar he will fill the vacancy on the board created by the impending retirement of Stephen Page, the 71-year-old former chief financial officer of United Technologies Corporation.
There are two new members of staff in the London office of Transaid, the charity specialising in transport projects in Africa. They are head of finance Valerie Johnson and corporate partnerships manager Jacqueline Hector.
Ms Johnson joins Transaid from BP, Ms Hector from Reed Exhibitions UK.
Transaid events executive Aggie Krasnolucka-Hickman expects the 10 remaining places in the charity’s fundraising cycle ride in Madagascar in June to be filled this month.
“All our volunteers have a passion for raising money for our projects with some of Africa’s poorest communities, but in addition some are looking forward to experiencing Madagascar’s lush tropical paradise, while others are looking to shed some Christmas pounds,” says Mrs Krasnolucka-Hickman.
Mike Wilson, commercial director of earthmover and industrial operations at tyre-maker Michelin, is one of the volunteers already signed up for the Madagascar challenge. “This is the second time I’m joining a Transaid fundraising expedition after cycling across Tanzania with the charity in 2010,” he says. “There’s a real mixture of abilities so you don’t need to be an expert, all you need is a keen sense of adventure.”
More information from www.transaid.org
A new business development and marketing director started work at Scania (Great Britain) last month, filling the vacancy left by the departure last October of business development director Tim Pugh. He is Arif Jafferji, who previously worked in marketing and planning at Barclays Bank.
Mr Pugh had worked for Scania for five years. Now he is commercial director at U-Pol, a big, London-based international supplier of car body-repair products.
Mr Jafferji, 38, is moving into the commercial vehicle industry for the first time. He worked for Barclays for about six years. Before that he was a consultant at accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, working with clients including a range of blue-chip companies. Mr Afferji has a degree in chemistry and a PHd in biophysics and biochemistry. At Scania (Great Britain) he reports to managing director Hans-Christer Holgersson.
Greg Archer has quit as managing director of the UK’s Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership (LowCVP) to join the Brussels-based lobby group Transport and Environment. Mr Archer had been at LowCVP for seven years. Its deputy director Jonathan Murray has taken on managing director responsibilities temporarily until Mr Archer’s successor is appointed. Neville Jackson continues as LowCVP chairman.
At Bendi, the Redditch, Worcestershire-based firm specialising in narrow-aisle fork-lift trucks, expansion plans have led to three managers being promoted to directors, and to a new recruit managing sales in Yorkshire.
Gary Chapman joins Bendi as Yorkshire region sales manager from Forkway Group, a materials handling equipment supplier, where he was salesman for West Yorkshire. Before that he was a mechanic in the armed forces.
As part of Bendi’s expansion plan, its UK and Irish Republic sales area has been split into two, with Paul Berrow appointed sales director for the Midlands and south. Stephen Astbury becomes sales director for the north, Scotland and Ireland. Andy Higham becomes export sales director.
