Fleet and mobility technology firm Fleetondemand has appointed well-known industry figure Andrew Cope as its executive chairman.

(L-R) Andrew Cope and Justin Whitston

His appointment follows two major announcements in October, including the launch of Fleetondemand’s Mobilleo Mobility-as-a Service (MaaS) solution and the news that investment firm BGF has taken a minority stake in the firm through a £5m investment.

Cope has a long history of fleet entrepreneurship; he was instrumental in leading Zenith through five private equity buyouts between 2003-2014, before spearheading the MBO of incident management and roadside recovery specialist FMG a year after joining its board in 2014. And in 2015, he invested alongside Endless and acquired Essential Fleet services, merging it with Go Plant in 2017.

His latest appointment sees him team up with Justin Whitston, chief executive of Fleetondemand and also a prominent entrepreneur within the industry. Prior to founding Fleetondemand, Whitston created Nexus Vehicle Rental in 2000 and successfully established the firm as the UK’s largest independent broker of vehicle rental to business. He was responsible for inventing and delivering the firm’s ‘IRIS’ proprietary SAAS technology solution to market, prior to exiting to Living Bridge, via a multi-million pound BIMBO.

In 2012 he founded Fleetondemand as a multi-platform mobility technology company which connects thousands of business people to vehicle rental, car leasing, business travel and transportation services globally.

Commenting on his appointment, Andrew Cope said: “Sometimes every once in a while, opportunities come along that you have to get involved in.  For me, being asked to invest in and be part of the FOD story following the recent BGF investment was just one of those moments.

“Having known Justin for many years and watched with real interest and admiration the development of the company, the chance to become Chairman at this ground-breaking juncture in the history of the company, especially with the recent launch of the Mobilleo platform was a real honour.”

Whitston added: “Following our recent investment, the creation of a world-class executive board was paramount to our strategy. Andrew has an unrivalled track record in his field and we are incredibly excited about working with him to drive the future success of our business.

“With the support BGF and Andrew, we will be able to ramp up engineering and product development and rapidly accelerate our sales strategy in the UK and pan European launch in 2019.  It’s a hugely exciting time for the business and we all look forward to working together to achieve the company’s growth potential over the next three years.”