Based at Fleet Logistics’ Birmingham office, Raponi will be responsible for the identification and recruitment of new national fleet customers, as the company bids to expand its managed fleet in the UK by 10,000 units this year.

He will also play a part in helping Fleet Logistics expand internationally as the company looks to aggressively expand the 110,000-plus vehicle fleet it manages across Europe.

Raponi brings with him over 12 years’ experience in the UK leasing industry at three major contract hire and leasing providers, Arval, LeasePlan and GE Capital, and a further five years in the UK and US daily rental industries.

He joins the international business development team that operates across 24 countries and reports to Stuart Donnelly, chief regional officer for Europe North.

Donnelly said: ‘We think someone with David’s knowledge and experience of the leasing industry will play a key role in helping us expand our fleet in the UK as he will be able to look at the client’s fleet from both leasing and fleet management perspectives.’

Donnelly said that he wanted to grow the UK fleet in line with group growth targets by the end of 2013 and saw two main methods of doing so.

‘As we have said before, our first line of attack will be to target organic growth with large fleets in the UK and across Europe. This is where our expertise lies and where we have built our reputation for creating the optimum value over the years.

 ‘Our second line of attack will be in providing fleet management services to fleet managers and third party service providers, with multi-bidding, invoice control and web-based real-time reporting to enable best-in-class fleet management and optimum value creation.

‘This new appointment will help us in achieving these dual objectives and is part of our planned expansion for 2013 and beyond,’ he said.

Donnelly said that in the UK, the company had already added considerable resources to help the intended expansion.

‘These additional resources – including this latest appointment – will help us significantly in achieving our goal of substantially expanding our fleet this year,’ he added.