Prominent automotive industry figures Lazola Madikizela and Jolyon Nash have been appointed to McCarthy Limited's board of directors, the company's chairman, Brand Pretorius, announced on Wednesday.

As from November 1, former Total SA regional sales manager Madikizela will take up the position of commercial director within the company, while outgoing VWSA sales and marketing director Nash becomes an executive director of McCarthy. Both directors will also join the company executive committee, a spokesman said.

Madikizela will also be appointed to the board of Budget Rent a Car and serve on the management committees of GAZ SA, McCarthy Fleet Services and Burchmores.

Madikizela obtained B.Soc Science and LLB degrees from the University of Natal in 1990 and 1993, followed by a LLM Degree (labour law) from Rand Afrikaans University. He has also just completed the dissertation required for his MBA qualification.

Nash will assume a position on the boards of McCarthy On-Line (chairman), McCarthy Insurance Services, McCarthy Finance and GAZ SA. As executive director, he will be responsible for the company's strategic planning function, marketing and e-commerce activities, including McCarthy On-Line; customer satisfaction and retention; vehicle import and distribution, including GAZ SA; McCarthy Fleet Services; McCarthy Insurance Services; as well as used vehicles through Call-a-Car and Burchmores.

Nash obtained his BA Honours (business studies) degree in 1982 from Greenwich University in the UK. His other academic achievements include the successful completion of a special programme on Breakthrough Customer Service (Harvard, 1996) and an executive development programme (University of Michigan, 2005).

Meanwhile, Pretorius also announced that Terry Gregory, who held several managerial positions at Mercedes Benz SA between 1981 and 1996 and helped establish the SsangYong and Citroën franchises in South Africa, would become the new managing director of its McCarthy Limited's commercial vehicle distributorship, GAZ Southern Africa.