Roelant de Waard has been appointed chairman and managing director, Ford of Britain from 1 February. He replaces Paul Thomas who becomes vice-president marketing for Ford of Europe.

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Born in the Netherlands, de Waard previously headed Ford of Europe’s customer service division (FCSD).


In his new position he assumes the responsibilities of chairman, Ford of Britain which were previously held by Roger Putnam, who retired at the end of 2005. De Waard will be based at the Ford of Britain headquarters in Brentwood, Essex.


In his new role, Thomas will be responsible for all of Ford’s pan-European consumer advertising and product marketing communications, vehicle pricing and production programming, and will be based at Ford’s technical development centre in Dunton, Essex. He was appointed managing director of Ford of Britain in March 2002.

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