Richard Emery

FORMER Nissan Australia managing director and CEO Richard Emery has taken over as managing director of OEM operations and events supplier Motorsport Safety and Rescue (MSR) from company founder Geoff Becker.

Mr Becker will remain with the company as a partner to Mr Emery and develop new projects.

The appointment to managing director follows Mr Emery’s contract with MSR in January this year as a consultant.

Mr Emery said further announcements on the company structure and the appointment of further key staff members will be made over the coming months.

Established in 1997 as a medical, fire and rescue service to rally events in Tasmania, MSR now provides events and logistics services to most major car companies in Australia.

It has offices in Brisbane and Sydney and recently expanded its Melbourne facilities.

Mr Becker said: “Richard has been consulting to MSR over the last months on the future direction of the business. At some point we looked at each other and thought maybe the future lay with him staying, on a permanent basis. It flowed from that.”

Mr Emery said: “Our plan is clearly to take the organic growth of MSR and consolidate it – then to look at sustainable growth.”

Mr Emery has more than 30 years of experience in the automotive sector in Australia and South-East Asia, including senior roles within a range of OEM operations.

This included three-and-a-half years as head of Nissan and Infiniti in Australia and New Zealand – a position he left in August last year.

“Richard’s knowledge of the auto industry at the highest level of OEMs operations and his involvement in elite-level motorsport programs provides the perfect mix for our business when you consider our foundations,” Mr Becker said.

Mr Emery said MSR will be developed to operate within five distinct areas including ‘MSR Fleet Management’ for custom fleet logistics solutions to OEMs, ‘MSR Corporate’ which services OEM launch and drive experience programs and the newly created ‘MSR Consulting’ which will provide planning and strategic advice to OEMs on a range of activities such as model introductions, public relations planning and motorsport programs.

There will also be an expansion of the company’s support for OEM engineering and R&D programs via ‘MSR Engineering’, while ‘MSR Motorsport’ remains the bedrock of the business and provides safety and rescue solutions to motorsport events.

By Neil Dowling