• FRANK Olsen, chairman of the Hertz Corporation, has been invited to join the British Travel Industry's Hall of Fame. This marks a lifetime achievement within the car rental market that Olsen joined in 1964. He has also been inducted into two others, the American Society of Travel Agents and the US trade publication, Business Travel News.

  • MARTIN Smith is to take over from Hans Seer as Vauxhall's director of design. Smith will be based in Germany and previously has been responsible for the design of Astras and their derivatives as well as the interior design for the VX220 roadster and the G-90 and Snowtrekka concept vehicles.

  • FRANK Straetmans has been appointed director, sales and marketing Europe, for Richard Lawson Autologistics. In 2001, Straetmans, who is Belgian, masterminded the development of a new automotive logistics product called Evolution 2, a dedicated dealer-to-dealer delivery service.

  • MONDIAL Assistance has announced the appointment of Christopher Jackson as special projects manager. After graduating from Cambridge with a degree in engineering, he joined Leyland Truck and Bus. More recently he was with Mazda UK which he joined in 1983 as technical controller.

  • FRED Maguire is to take over from John Bond-Smith as president of the Retail Motor Industry Federation (RMI), a post he will hold until the summer of 2004. Maguire was previously chairman.

  • RIKKE Harrison has been appointed reservations manager with Thrifty Car Rental and will be responsible for the day-to-day management of the central reservations department. She takes over from Beverley Town and will be based at Thrifty's UK headquarters in High Wycombe.

  • COMMERCIAL vehicle leasing company Extra Leasing has appointed Paul Carlin as corporate sales manager. He joins Extra from GE Capital Key Leasing where he was responsible for new business.

  • GLYN Owen has been appointed managing director of Alfa Romeo (UK). Previously, Owen was managing director of Fiat Auto (Denmark) for three years.

  • IN his new role with National Fleet as service booking manager, Chris Downard will take responsiblity for its new service booking programme. Before joining National, Downard worked for four years as a call centre supervisor with FTM Tyrefit and Fit 4 Fleet.

  • CHRIS Tarry has been promoted to the board of Fleetlease UK as sales and marketing director. Tarry has been with the company for three years, most recently as head of sales. His new responsibilities will include customer services and the fleet management areas of the company.