Karen Cottington has been appointed as the new business development manager for epyx’s 1link Service Network.

Her role will be to guide expansion of the service and maintenance e-commerce platform, which is used by fleets totalling more than 2.5 million vehicles to process service and maintenance bought from around 18,000 franchise dealers, independent garages and fast fits.

Cottington has spent almost two decades in the fleet industry, holding roles such as UK head of sales and development and general manager at outsourced management service provider White Clarke Group for Ford Rental and corporate account manager at West Wallasey Car Hire.

She said: “1link Service Network is clearly a very successful product. Using my experience in the fleet industry, I will be looking to increase its usage both in the market sectors where it is already in widespread use and examine new business opportunities.

“Following its recent acquisition by FleetCor, this is a very exciting time to be joining epyx, and I am looking forward to becoming part of the team at Meriden.”