Martin Phillips has joined the board at Athlon UK as chief operations officer.

Martin Phillips, chief operations officer at Athlon UK

Phillips has some 20 years of fleet and leasing experience in both captive and bank-backed organisations. He most recently held a joint-MD position at i247Group, a specialist in-life outsourcer to the UK fleet sector.

Prior to this, he spent nine years at Volkswagen Financial Services where he led a team tasked with creating and rolling out a strategic growth plan for the UK fleet market.

Commenting on his new role, Phillips said: “I am excited to be back in a leasing company. I am looking forward to delivering for our customers and building flexible and green fleet management solutions, with the ability to leverage the mobility solutions for our international customers.”

His appointment comes six months after Athlon UK was rebranded from Daimler Fleet Management UK, some four years after Daimler Financial Services acquired Athlon Car Lease International from Rabobank. Athlon is now the fleet and mobility management expert in the Daimler group, focused on multi-marque car and commercial vehicle solutions for both public and private sector businesses and with some pioneering plans.

Athlon UK managing director Patricia Wolfe said: “I am delighted that Martin has joined Athlon UK bringing with him a wealth of experience and customer focus, Martin completes the new management team at Athlon UK and will lead the Operation Division as we look to grow our corporate and international car and van business in the coming years.”