Dan Ingle

COX Automotive has appointed Dan Ingle, its current vice-president of international business development, as the interim CEO of its Australian Media Solutions division to look after the CarsGuide and Autotrader brands.

Mr Ingle’s appointment comes in the wake of CEO, Lauren Williams, taking maternity leave from the end of last month. However Ms Williams has since informed the company that she has made the “tough decision” to leave the company and not return.

Cox Automotive Australia (CAA) CEO, Rob Whiten, said in a statement that Ms Williams told him she felt the “time was right for a new permanent leader to take the business forward in the next stage of its growth”.

Mr Whiten said Ms Williams, who was five years at the helm of CarsGuide, had made an “enormous contribution to the business”.

“Lauren really transformed the CarsGuide business, developing the brand to a position of significant strength whilst leading the company into profitability and strong sales growth. Lauren also initiated the development of Autotrader.com.au as a CAA business.

“With Lauren’s departure and with her encouragement, we now have the opportunity to appoint a new CEO for Media Solutions, to lead the business forward at a critical point in time.”

He said that Cox Automotive Australia was currently recruiting a permanent Australian-based CEO.

Mr Ingle’s role at Cox Automotive has been on the global expansion of the Cox Automotive Media Solutions brands, namely Autotrader and Kelley Blue Book (KBB) and developing a global vehicle valuation strategy for Cox Automotive.

Lauren Williams

In this capacity he has been working with CarsGuide, Autotrader and the other Cox Automotive local brands over the past few months.

The company said that Mr Ingle was highly experienced in launching new brands.

He launched KBB in Portugal and Brazil in 2017 and led the development of a vehicle valuation business in China known as JingZhenGu (a joint venture between Cox Automotive, BitAuto, and the Chinese Automobile Dealership Association).

Mr Ingle he also sits on the board of Molicar, a Brazilian vehicle valuation business acquired by Cox in 2016.

Since joining Kelley Blue Book in 2006, he has held several different leadership positions within Cox Automotive including vice-president of vehicle valuations and industry solutions for the US business. He also held the role of vice-president of analytic insights and technology where he had a strong focus on the technology platforms, data assets, and analytic capabilities that drive the KBB business.

Prior to Kelley Blue Book, he served as director of information technology for Capital One Auto Finance. While in this position he was responsible for the company’s consumer website, as well as all internal systems for a direct-to-consumer loan originations and servicing platform.

During his career, Mr Ingle also spent time at PeopleFirst.com, Thomson Technology Consulting Group and Ernst and Young, in addition to conducting his own consulting business.

Mr Whiten said: “Mr Ingle was perfectly placed to lead the CarsGuide and Autotrader brands in Australia in the short term.

“His immediate focus will be successfully launching the Autotrader brand in the Australian market. He is due to commence his new role on February the 5th.”

By John Mellor