High point: Steve Dunn worked his way up from apprentice motor mechanic to the highest level in technical training at Nissan, and is now taking on a new challenge as BMW Australia’s training chief.

BMW Group Australia has appointed Steve Dunn as head of training and retail HR.

Starting the new job this month, Mr Dunn has more than 25 years of automotive industry experience with Nissan – in both OEM and retail sectors – and for well over the past decade had risen through the ranks at Nissan Australia to become national manager of dealer training.

He also served as manager of technical and product training, manager of the Nissan High Performance Centre, and earlier worked for many years as a technical consultant, trainer and co-ordinator.

Announcing his move, Mr Dunn said: “Thanks, Nissan. What a journey the past 26 years has been: from an apprentice motor mechanic at Gladstone Nissan to national manager – dealer training.

“The brand, the product (I will always love GT-R) and importantly the amazing and talented people I have worked alongside and now have as lifelong friends has made saying goodbye so hard.”

Based at BMW’s head office in Mulgrave, in Melbourne’s south-eastern suburbs, Mr Dunn reports to general manager of sales channel development Marcus Pachmann and is responsible for supporting the dealer network by “providing training, recruitment and retention support, enabling high level of sales excellence, customer satisfaction and thereby dealer profitability”.

His replacement at Nissan Australia is Edward Trinh, a former product manager with Holden Special Vehicles (HSV) and, for the past 18 months, manager of product management at Nissan’s luxury brand Infiniti Cars Australia.

Mr Trinh joined the Nissan/Infiniti stable in November 2017, having spent the previous seven years at HSV.

He started at the Holden high-performance division as a product planner in mid-2010 before stepping up as product manager early in 2013 and, about 18 months later, group product manager – a position he held for three years.

Prior to HSV, Mr Trinh worked for Bosch Australia and New Zealand over about three years in a variety of roles, including assistant product manager and business analyst and sales controller.

He also has experience working with Elfin Sports Cars soon after the niche Australian sportscar marque was bought by HSV/Walkinshaw Group in late 2006, and had a stint with the Australian Grand Prix Corporation.

By Terry Martin