CAREER-VIEW MIRROR - biographies of colleagues in the automotive and mobility industries.

Ian is the Global Managing Director of Benchmark Consulting International Europe. Prior to joining Benchmark he had a successful international career with Ford Motor Credit Company during which he was Head of Mazda Bank Europe, President of Primus, Ford Motor Company's group of financial services companies in the Philippines, Managing Director of Ford Motor Credit Company of New Zealand  and...

Alusch is currently Director, Development with Accor S.A., the French multinational hospitality company that owns, manages and franchises hotels, resorts and vacation properties.  He has founded his own professional services, advisory  and investment businesses. Focusing on his automotive finance career, he was formerly Managing Director of BMW Financial Services in Hong Kong and prior to that he...

Antony is Head of RMT (Repair Maintenance and Tyres) at Leaseplan UK. Responsible for service booking, VOR management, Rental, Accident management, breakdown and recoveries, network management, maintenance / tyre authorisation and cost control for their fleet of 200,000 vehicles in the UK. Prior to that he was UK General Manager Operations for CarNext.com the largest pan-European marketplace for h...

Peter has a doctorate in educational leadership, a certificate in international school leadership, and teaching and leadership experience in six countries. He is a certified Gallup Clifton Strengths coach and Appreciative Inquiry facilitator and has mentored leaders across sectors helping them use  their strengths effectively. Peter provides practical and effective solutions to culture building, t...

Eva is a startup executive and board advisor in FinTech, Mobility, AutoFinance, Digital and Strategy. She’s working as a client partner for Otoz Mobility in California, as an executive advisor USA for the Twinner Group in Berlin and also holds an advisory position with Way.com in San Francisco.   Prior to that, she served as the Senior Director of Strategy at Fair, a Santa Monica-based tech compan...

Chris is a lawyer, he is the owner of his own professional services firm, Bison Cove, he is a Senior Legal Consultant at the global law firm DLA Piper, he is the co author of the book Legal and Conduct Risk in the Financial Markets and he is a Client Partner and General Counsel for Aquilae .  All my guests' careers are unique but as you'll find out from our conversation there is consider...

Graham is the Chief Executive Officer of Advantage Finance Ltd.    He spent 21 years with Volkswagen Financial Services where he started as an Area Manager and progressed to become Chief Executive Officer of Volkswagen Financial Services UK, a role which he held for over 11 years. He also spent 3 years in Germany at the Headquarters of VWFS.  His early career included time with GE Capital and Merc...

Heidi is Senior Vice President Customer Experience at NextCar .   After working as a consultant for Mercer in Dubai, and then as a self employed consultant in the U.S., the U.A.E. and Germany, Heidi chose Berlín to set up her first startup fromcash2car.com . She went on to co-found Otoz mobility before recently joining subscription startup NextCar.   Heidi has firmly secured her place as one of ou...

Shannon has over 20 years of experience in the financial industry where she has successfully executed projects in operational department start-ups, rebuilt company customer experiences, and increased business efficiencies for clients who are Fortune 500, Top 100 Best Employers and Market Disruptors.  She also runs her own company called TheBluDoor as a certified Business and Success coach catering...

Nigel is Head of Financial Services at London Electric Vehicle Company where they make electric versions of London's iconic Black taxi cabs  He has worked in the automotive industry for over 30 years including 10 years in the Middle East.   He started his career with Lombard in the UK before moving to Rover Finance. When BMW Group sold Rover, his attention turned to helping establish Alphabet...

Andy is Associate Director Global Partnerships at Tent Partnerships for Refugees based in Germany. Prior to moving into the not for profit sector, he had an international automotive career that included roles with Volkswagen, Sixt, Alphabet, and BMW Financial Services and led to him founding his own consultancy, Mobility-biz in 2011. He has lived and worked in Germany, the Czech Republic, China an...

Andrew is currently General Manager for Global Sales Finance for Nissan, based at their headquarters in Yokohama, Japan.  Having left school at 16, Andrew started out as an apprentice boilermaker in Pittsworth, Queensland, Australia, fabricating trailers for heavy goods vehicles. As his apprenticeship grew near to completion, he realised that this wasn't the right career for him. Armed with t...

David is a highly experienced automotive finance professional and a wonderful human being.  He started work straight from school in a branch of the Midland Bank which is now part of HSBC before finding his way into automotive with Ford Credit. He rose up through the ranks at Ford Credit from trainee Zone Manager to Regional Director in Europe amassing valuable experience on the way. After taking e...

Brett is the General Manager of MINI Australia and New Zealand. His career in automotive has included retail sales and financial services as well as regional management.   In our conversation, he shares openly about how he came into the industry, having initially trained as a plumber, and the journey he is on. He talks about what motivated him at first and what motivates him now, his unusual choic...

Kirk thinks globally and acts locally and you'll hear plenty of evidence of that in our conversation as Kirk opens the book on his incredible automotive career so far. Kirk grew up in the state of Indiana, the heartland of America, and attended Hillsdale College in Michigan, earning a bachelor's degree in finance with a minor in philosophy (including study at Oxford University’s Keble Co...

Osman is the Managing Director of ContactCars.com in Egypt which launched its new digital used car platform in March 2021. Before joining ContactCars just over a year ago, Osman spent 22 years involved with the BMW brand. He started as a graduate intern in the financial services business in the UK and ended up as General Manager of the BMW importer in Dubai. Along the way he gained experience in A...

Born and raised in rural Scotland, Jonny’s natural entrepreneurial spirit was evident from an early age, starting a car washing business in his neighbourhood at just 14 years old. While study marketing at the University of Stirling, Jonny had a number of business ventures, including buying and selling used cars to generate supplementary income. At the age of 20, Jonny joined the highly competitive...

Paul is the Regional Director for Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Asia Pacific with overall responsibility for the performance of the Rolls Royce business across 15 markets excluding China.  Prior to living and working in Asia, he was responsible for BMW's Baltic region, that's Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, based out of Stockholm in Sweden. Originally from the UK, Paul began his career with BMW...

Dan Balmer's current role is President, Aston Martin Lagonda, UK Middle East and Africa I am excited and proud to share Dan's career journey so far with you. Dan's story is wonderful in so many ways. He is one of those very lucky people who knew what he wanted to do from an early age and so with that focus and through hard work he has been able to pursue his entire career in the aut...

Karen describes herself as semi retired now but she still helps to develop and assess aspiring Heads of Business for Jaguar Land Rover in the UK. Her career journey has taken in some of the most famous names in UK automotive retailing and also seen her transition to the manufacturer side with roles at Fiat, Rover, Toyota and Mercedes Benz. In this introduction, I am deliberately trying to avoid re...

Karima graduated as a Computer Scientist and began her career at Electronic Data Systems working with GM Financial. Later roles have included Client Services Director at White Clarke Group, Chief Information Officer at Mercedes Benz UK and a stint in Daimler AG in Stuttgart before setting up her own consultancy, Auto Novo in 2015.  In this episode of Career-view Mirror we look back on Karima'...

Alan Crookes has 40 years experience in the banking and financial services industry and he recently retired after 26 years at BMW Group Financial Services. During that time, he held the roles of COO, CFO and CEO for BMW Financial Services Australia before most notably in 2005, being promoted to CEO of BMW Group Financial Services Asia Pacific region.  In that role, he guided the development of a s...

Leopold's motto is passionate pursuit of the extraordinary and unrivalled. He's a Senior Director at Carvana in California. He spent five years at Tesla as Senior Director of Financial Services and Insurance in both California and the Asia Pacific region and he has over 12 years experience with BMW Group in multiple roles across the globe.   In this episode of Career-view Mirror we talk...

Nina Englert grew up in Mamaroneck just outside New York City.  As a teenager she would visit the BMW dealership in Park Avenue. Fast forward 30 years and she is now responsible for three of BMW's factory owned stores in Hanover, Bremen and Göttingen. Along the way she has lived and worked in Munich, New Jersey and Auckland where she became the first female President of a National Sales Compa...

Annie Wechter is an inspirational woman who you might say "grew up" career-wise at Tesla. She joined the company in 2012 straight from university and spent the first seven years of her professional life furthering Tesla's mission in California and Europe.  In this conversation we talk about what she learned in those seven years, and how those lessons inform her approach to life and...