AND news - November 2009
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Motors.co.uk announce new CEO Garry Hobson
Motors.co.uk announce new CEO Garry Hobson
26th November 2009
Garry Hobson has been appointed as the new CEO of motors.co.uk, the digital automotive division of AND, (www.and.co.uk) a vacancy created by the departure of Andrew Dyson, MD of motors.co.uk for the past 3 years. Andrew will be assuming a new role within the organisation to be announced in January.
Garry will be responsible for driving the next wave of growth for the business as motors.co.uk continues to expand its market share of the UK motors advertising market. Garry’s breadth and depth of experience positions him uniquely to build on the strong growth shown by motors.co.uk since its launch in 2006.
Garry has over 20 years of varied automotive industry experience working primarily in large dealer groups such as Pendragon and Inchcape. Since 2007 he has been the highly successful CEO of Autoquake.com which is a venture capital backed company selling used cars online direct to consumers through its award winning website. Autoquake has grown dramatically during Garry’s time as CEO, from £5M in 2007 to £58M in 2009, by utilising digital classified channels to generate consumer traffic through skilful usage of SEM, SEO and CRM skills.
Whilst growth has been accelerated through technological developments the key element has been the never-ending focus on creating customers who are prepared to highly recommend Autoquake to friends and family. Prior to Autoquake, Garry was MD for Masterlease in Northern Europe where he was responsible for several large leasing companies as well as Carland that, at the time, was the second largest multi site used car business in the UK.
Throughout his career Garry has worked in companies both large and small with high growth plans - and he has been successful in achieving those plans by always focussing on delivering an exceptional customer experience and by creating a very open management culture, experiences he will transfer to motors.co.uk.
Garry has a degree in Mechanical Engineering and an MBA from Cranfield University. He lives in Berkhamsted with his wife and three daughters. Garry will join Motors in December 2009.
Richard D. Titus, CEO of Associated Northcliffe Digital, said, “We are excited about Garry’s decision to join the AND portfolio and are keen to see him and the Motors.co.uk team continue to grow its market leadership in the UK online automotive segment and beyond.”
Garry Hobson said, ”I am looking forward with great anticipation to working with the experienced Motors team and capturing some of the enormous opportunities that are available in the online automotive market place”.
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