Crossman joined Honda UK in 2000 as a regional manager from Nissan Motor GB where he was one of the founding business team. For the past two years he has been responsible for Honda's UK car sales operation as general manager, cars and was previously head of dealer development for cars, motorcycles and power products.

His appointment comes as Dave Hodgetts moves from his three-year tenure as managing director of Honda UK where he has been responsible for the manufacturer's UK sales operations across cars, motorcycles and power products.

His new role of European regional auditor is effective 1 April 2013 and will see Hodgetts take responsibility for the business performance assessment of 27 markets in the European Region as well as those in Middle East, Russia and Africa. Reporting to HME's chief operating officer, Manabu Nishimae, the role will also encompass Honda's six manufacturing facilities within Europe and eight logistics operations.

Honda said that Hodgetts’ new appointment will ‘play a key part in Honda's five-year European strategy to create a strong, autonomous regional operation, building on "best practice" in all areas and strengthening Honda's European business performance overall’.

Prior to joining Honda's sales operations, Hodgetts spent 20 years in a variety of management roles at Honda's Swindon car manufacturing operation, latterly as director of planning and business administration. His background in both sales and manufacturing were key factors in his new European appointment. 



Commenting on his new position, Hodgetts said: ‘The new role will encompass the whole of Honda's extended European region and will give me a great opportunity to better understand the diversity of these different operations and assess the issues that Honda must tackle in order to be successful in both mature and emerging markets.’