GEELY Auto Australia has appointed Anoosh Saffari as chief operating officer and Andrei Burdusel as national sales operations and planning manager as the Chinese car-maker expands its employee list in preparation for market launch in the first half of 2025.

Mr Saffari was previously head of sales at Volkswagen Group Australia Cupra brand, a position he held for more than three years.

Anoosh Saffari

The appointment of Mr Burdusel as national sales operations and planning manager comes after his position as brand manager at Volkswagen Financial Services Australia.

Before Cupra, Mr Saffari was regional manager of digital transformation and retail CX with Skoda Australia and, prior to that, general sales manager of Volvo Cars Sydney and sales and development and marketing with Mazda Australia.

Andrei Burdusel

Mr  Burdusel was at Volkswagen for 11 months, coming from the role of ‘go to market’ manager at  Hyundai Motor Company Australia and prior to that, sales planning and ordering manager at Skoda Australia.

Geely will enter the Australian market with its latest model, the EX5 medium SUV, bringing what it describes as “cutting-edge electric vehicles to Australian consumers”.

It is the parent company of Lotus, Polestar, Volvo and Zeekr among others, all of which are established in – or in the process of entering – the Australian market.