Originally from Cork, O’Brien succeeds Paul Sansom, who has been promoted to the role of managing director of Audi South Africa.

O’Brien moves to the Milton Keynes-based role from his current position as director of SEAT Ireland. He has also held the position of aftersales manager and fleet & used car manager for Audi Ireland. He has also worked for Renault, Lexus, Audi and Nissan in a variety of management positions.

Andre Konsbruck, director of Audi UK, said: ‘Paul leaves Audi UK sales in terrific shape and we are very grateful for his tremendous contribution to our success. Under his leadership in various management roles over the last 8 years, Audi UK achieved numerous record results in both sales and aftersales. We wish him plenty of success in his international assignment.

‘We are excited about Cian joining our team as he brings a real depth and breadth of experience and we feel he is the right person to continue to lead our ambitious sales plans in which Audi aims to remain the UK's number one premium brand, with continued focus on customer satisfaction and profitability.’