More senior management changes at JLR

JAGUAR Land Rover Australia managing director Matthew Wiesner has continued to restructure his senior management team, announcing another string of appointments this week spanning sales, human resources and training.

Following four senior appointments last month, another four new managers join the JLR Australia team including Andrew Phillips as sales director, Renae Sarina as HR manager, David Foster as technical training manager and Noel Ryan as non-technical training manager.

Mr Phillips takes on the dedicated top sales position at the company some four months after Mr Wiesner stepped up as managing director from his previous role as sales and operations director.

He brings to the position considerable experience with Toyota, most recently serving as corporate manager of brand management and communications.

Prior to that Mr Phillips was corporate manager of digital marketplace and CRM, having returned to the Australian market leader early last year after three years as chief executive of the Jarvis Group of Companies, overseeing nine dealerships across six brands in South Australia.

He had moved to the Jarvis Group after around rising through the ranks at Toyota over a 10-year period, holding a variety of positions including regional sales manager (central region), franchise development manager and marketing manager (retail and corporate).

Ms Sarina has more than 14 years’ experience across a range of industries, including automotive, and comes to JLR from Audi Australia, where she was HR manager. She has also worked for Newcastle City Holden, Heartland Holden, Zeus Sport, Lend Lease Australia and biopharmaceutical company Parexel International.

Mr Foster takes on the newly created technical training manager role after five years with Vantage Automotive, which provides government-funded vocational learning and outsourced services to major vehicle manufacturers across Australia.

He started at Vantage as program manager/apprentice trainer and assessor, and in 2012 was promoted to operations manager responsible for the Jaguar Land Rover, Subaru and Mazda apprentice and technical training contracts and operations.

Mr Ryan, meanwhile, takes over a role that became vacant in April when David Watson retired.

He has many years’ experience in Australia and abroad, including four years with Volkswagen Group Australia as academy manager (product and brand) and seven years with Audi Australia in a variety of senior positions across product planning, marketing, CRM and dealer training.

Prior to that, Mr Ryan worked for almost four years in product marketing for Audi in Ireland.