He replaces Jurgen Buchert (66) who will retire at the end of the year after 22 years as CEO of the company.

Mr van der Galien (55) has many years of experience in the areas of strategy, sales and marketing, as well as digitalisation, and brings many years of international management experience to the table.

He joined Motorola in 1992 after studying computer science and in the following 17 years, he became managing director of Motorola B.V. Netherlands and was part of the European executive management team and director of sales for Motorola ECC Europe.

In 2009 he joined the Haynes Group as global director of sales and marketing for HaynesPro, its professional automotive data division.

Following steep growth of HaynesPro he was appointed as managing director of the HaynesPro Group and executive director on the supervisory board of Haynes Publishing plc in 2015.

Retire: Galien becomes TecAlliance’s new boss as Buchert (lower) retires after 22 years as CEO

He was a founding member of ADPA (European Automotive Data Publishers Association) and acted as their vice president for over six years.

Mr van der Galien said: “I am very excited to succeed Jürgen Buchert as CEO of TecAlliance, who has successfully led TecAlliance to become the global market leader in data for the automotive aftermarket.

“I am looking forward to building on the achievements of the TecAlliance team and to further develop TecAlliance’s business as a global player in the field of automotive data and digital business processes.

“Jurgen and I will work closely together from October onwards to assure a thorough handover and I will be aligning our business plans with Neil Fryer and the shareholders’ committee.”

Mr Buchert, who holds a degree in business administration, began his career in 1989 at a renowned parts manufacturer.

After holding various professional positions in Germany and abroad, he joined TecCom GmbH as managing director in 2001. In 2010, he merged TecDoc with TecCom, which then became TecAlliance GmbH.

With further acquisitions, he systematically completed the solution portfolio in the following years and initiated globalisation.

Today, TecAlliance is represented in more than 25 countries with its own subsidiaries and is supported by a professional partner network.

In 2017, he founded the industry initiative for telematic data, Caruso GmbH, which has since established itself as a leading provider in Europe and expanded into the Americas and Asia-Pacific.

He is a member of a number of important national and international associations.

Mr Buchert said: “The TecAlliance Group has risen to become a global market leader. TecAlliance is well prepared for the digital transformation of the aftermarket and the rapidly developing mobility ecosystem and will continue to offer its customers added value with data-based business models, digital process solutions and services based on standards.

“Now is the ideal time to hand over the baton to further develop TecAlliance as the world’s leading platform in this new market environment and make it competitive for 2030.”

Jurgen Buchert

By Neil Dowling