Stephen Chater appointed a director and deputy chairman of the ICFM

The Institute of Car Fleet Management (ICFM) has appointed Stephen Chater as a director of the Institute and deputy chairman.

Chairman of the ICFM, Paul Hollick, said: “Steve has been working on the ICFM Council since 2011 and has made significant contributions to the Institute’s development over this time.

“He is absolutely passionate about training and I am delighted to appoint him to our board and for him to fulfil the role of deputy chairman.

He continued: “Steve’s appointment is strategically important, he has vast experience within the training and development field, and he will support me, the rest of the council and all of our members, with his invaluable industry presence and experience within the wider automotive sector. I am delighted to have him by my side.”

Chater has more than 25 years’ experience within the automotive sector. Within BMW Group, he has held numerous senior management roles in addition to a wide breadth of commercial roles.

Most notably, he spent five years as the UK head of learning and development at the BMW Academy, where he launched the BMW Group training facility and achieved worldwide recognition for the training. He then became sales development and network CRM manager, managing tactical sales and marketing, BMW and MINI network CRM processes, and the sales communication and recognition programmes.

More recently, as head of fleet and business sales, he held overall responsibility for the delivery of all corporate, direct and special sales achievement for BMW, MINI and BMW i, leading to recognition of BMW Group as a leading fleet OEM.

Chater said: “I am delighted and honoured to have been appointed as director and deputy chairman of the ICFM.

“I am indeed passionate about advancing training and education in the automotive industry and am looking forward to supporting Paul in growing the Institute in the interests of both our members and the fleet industry as a whole.”

Chater is currently general manager, product and market planning for BMW. In his current role, he is responsible for BMW, BMW M, BMW Individual and BMW i product and pricing strategy, product management and market planning. He has been responsible for leading an unprecedented number of new product launches for the group, including the iconic BMW i8 plug-in hybrid sports car.