Car rental company Europcar has announced that Mark Cotterill has been promoted to managing director of Europcar Group UK.

He succeeds John Leigh, who was named chairman of Europcar UK Ltd, the holding company for Europcar's subsidiaries in the UK.

Mr Leigh joined Europcar in 2007 with the company’s acquisition of Vanguard EMEA, which operated the National and Alamo vehicle rental brands across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

In all, he has been involved in the entities which now constitute Europcar's UK operations for more than 35 years.

“We thank John Leigh for his commitment and successful leadership of Europcar in the UK.

“His industry knowledge and leadership skills have been invaluable to us and we are very pleased that he has accepted the position of chairman of Europcar UK Limited," said Salvatore Catania, chief executive officer of Europcar Group.

“And we are delighted to offer Mark Cotterill a broader management role in this key market.

“This smooth leadership transition is a guarantee of continuity of the outstanding service we provide our customers throughout the United Kingdom.”

Mr Cotterill, 43, joined Europcar UK as finance director in April 2003 and was subsequently promoted to the position of general manager of Europcar Group UK in July 2007.

Prior to joining Europcar, he held senior finance positions in well known UK services companies for more than 15 years.

Mr Leigh has more than 40 years of experience in vehicle rental.

He began his career in 1967 with Godfrey Davis, which was later to become Europcar, where he held a number of management roles.

In 1972, he joined Swan National and in 1990 was named managing director when the company changed its name to EuroDollar.

Following Eurodollar's acquisition by National Car Rental, Mr Leigh was given the responsibility for launching National in the EMEA marketplace.