Diverse role: After a three-year stint overseeing dealer business, Robert Thorp will now become general manager of Honda’s newly formed product, customer and communications division.

HONDA Australia has made a series of senior management changes that will see dealer business chief Robert Thorp head up a newly formed product, customer and communications division, effective March 4.

Current customer and communications general manager Scott McGregor has been made redundant and will now leave the company after three-and-a-half years of service, while senior manager of dealer performance and operations Paul Dwyer steps up as the new general manager of dealer business.

General manager of the product division Lawrence Lau has also announced his retirement from Honda, effective July 26, and in the meantime will move into a special project manager role reporting directly to the Honda Australia board “across various important company-wide projects”.

Mr Thorp has spent the past three years as dealer business general manager, which was a three-year job rotation assignment, and Mr Lau’s impending retirement – after 25 years of service – has prompted the company to restructure its business with the formation of the new product, customer and comms department.

Scott McGregor

This will see Mr Thorp responsible for product and sales planning, brand communications, public relations and a newly established customer experience function.

In announcing the changes, Honda Australia, which is led by managing director and CEO Hiroyuki Shimizu and directors Stephen Collins and Carolyn McMahon, said Mr Lau had made significant contributions to the company over more than two decades and that it “sincerely thanks him for his dedication and efforts over this time”.

The company also said it was “extremely grateful for Mr McGregor’s contribution to the business”, pointing to his role in leading the transformation of Honda’s digital capability, numerous new-model launch campaigns and delivery of the brand strategy, among other achievements.

Mr Thorp is an experienced finance executive who has worked for Honda for the past eight years, coming to the Japanese brand from Pitcher Partners, where he worked for a decade and was a senior manager.

Lawrence Lau

He also worked as a financial accountant for Holden for almost two years, from early 1999 to late 2000.

Mr Dwyer has spent almost nine years at Honda, joining in 2010 as sales operations manager before taking on the role of Queensland state manager two years later.

He was subsequently promoted to senior manager of sales planning before moving into the dealer performance and operations position about a year ago, which has seen him work closely with the national retail network and fleet customers as well as managing Honda’s regional offices.

Paul Dwyer

Mr McGregor joined Honda in 2015 from Ford Australia, where he had spent almost four years as marketing manager of its SUVs and commercial vehicles, and, earlier, a year as product marketing specialist for small cars and commercial vans.

He previously worked for several years with the Foster’s Group Limited/Carlton and United Breweries in a range of positions including senior brand manager, commercial manager and commercial insights analyst.

As general manager of customer and communications at Honda, Mr McGregor oversaw four key departments – brand communications, public relations, customer relationship management and customer relations.

Mr Lau leaves Honda after serving for the past five years as general manager of product. He earlier worked for two years as senior manager of parts and, before that, spent 14 years as national IT manager.

By Terry Martin