Kia appoints new sales director

David Ovenden has joined Kia as its new sales director at the company's head office in Weybridge, Surrey.

Reporting to commercial director Yaser Shabsogh, David heads up a 42-strong sales team and takes on the responsibility of developing and managing the Kia dealer network and ensuring the full utilisation of all sales channels to include retail, fleet, new and used cars as well as contributing at board level to the development of corporate strategy and growth.

Shabsogh said: "The experience and in-depth knowledge that David will bring to the sales team and the company as a whole will be of great benefit to us."

Ovenden commented: "I am delighted to be joining Kia at such an exciting time in the brand's development and very much looking forward to working with the sales team and the dealer network to continue the strong sales record of recent years and helping Kia to reach its ambition of 100,000 cars a year."

David - aged 50 and married with four children - brings a raft of experience to the role with over 20 years in the automotive industry working across finance, sales and after-sales divisions. He has spent more than 23 years working within the VW Group across all four brands and, in direct relevance to his current role he spent six years at Skoda as UK head of operations.