Sweeping management changes at JLR Australia

JAGUAR Land Rover Australia managing director Matthew Wiesner has announced a series of key senior management changes, with Louise Cassidy promoted as network director, Brett Lewis-Driver now group product and planning manager and Nicola Imison stepping up as control profit planning manager.

These are all newly created positions, while former Toyota executive Philippa Gyles has joined the company as northern region sales manager.

Ms Gyles previously worked in a variety of roles for Toyota Financial Services, including pricing and purchasing manager for the Toyota Fleet Management division, and fleet dealership manager for SA/NT.

She also worked for Toyota Australia as a sales analyst and, later, a district sales manager, and spent a year with Mazda Australia as a dealer business manager.

Chris Lidis remains aftersales director at JLR Australia as Ms Cassidy, who has spent the past three-and-a-half years as network development manager with JLR Australia, takes on the role of network director.

Ms Cassidy has almost two decades’ experience in the automotive industry, working in various sales and marketing positions in Australia – mainly within the Jaguar Land Rover fold – and overseas.

She spent three years as corporate sales and training manager for JLR Australia, around 18 months as a regional business manager for Jaguar and had separate stints in marketing communications with both the Jaguar and Land Rover brands.

Her overseas experience includes three years as a CRM and interactive marketing specialist with Volvo in Sweden.

Ms Cassidy’s appointment comes less than two months after Mr Wiesner outlined to GoAuto a new expansion plan for JLR’s dealer network, which will see it push into more regional centres and require existing dealers to take on both brands in the stable.

Mr Lewis-Driver’s promotion marks a new chapter for the veteran JLR executive, who started his automotive career with Land Rover in 1987. Over the years he has served in various roles, including regional aftersales manager, vehicle processing manager and, most recently, Land Rover product manager.

The company has advised that it is currently looking to fill the role of product manager “as soon as possible”.

Ms Imison, meanwhile, has worked for JLR since 2012 as a corporate tax manager, moving into the automotive sector after several years in senior accountancy positions, including almost five years with KPMG.