Leon Hurst has joined Trak Global Group (TGG) as mobility CEO to spearhead the Group’s international and UK growth plans in the automotive and mobility sectors.

Leon Hurst CEO, Mobility at Trak Global Group

Hurst, formerly a commercial officer at automotive SaaS business JATO Dynamics, head of product management for Nokia and head of product marketing (digital & connected car) for Jaguar Land Rover, is the company’s second senior hire since private equity house Three Hills Capital Partners (THCP) took a minority stake in TGG earlier this month. According to Nick Corrie, Group CEO and who Hurst will report to, his arrival is a statement of intent from the Group to build a dominant position in connected car data solutions in the UK, Europe and North America.

Corrie said of Hurst’s appointement, “[He] is a rare breed in having international experience at a senior level in both telecoms and automotive – a powerful combination as the level of in-vehicle connectivity continues to grow at a rapid rate and these industries show signs of convergence.”

“Hurst’s task will be to both deepen existing partnerships among our mobility and auto OEM customers and develop new ones. There’s an ecosystem of genuine opportunity forming around embedded telemetry and value-adding connected car services, and we believe we are ideally placed to play a pivotal role in helping our customers across insurance and mobility to leverage the value from this.”

Hurst added: “Vehicle manufacturers have long acknowledged that there’s inherent value in connected car data for mobility operators and insurers, but there remains the challenge of how to effectively engage and convert the data into value adding services in adjacent markets. Given that the OEMs face more pressing challenges – like completing the journey to electrification, autonomy and the evolution of retail – it’s businesses like Trak Global Group that can bridge the gap and enable all parties to apply connected car data in a practical, commercial but innovative way.

“Growth will define my task at TGG. On the back of our investment from Three Hills, we want to increase the scale of our connected service asset base exponentially during the next two/three years, with sustainable medium-term growth. I’m joining an incredibly strong leadership team, with genuine customer focus and a clear strategy, so I’ll be converting that strategy into action – across product, service and client acquisition.”

Hurst’s appointment follows less than a week after the hiring of Nino Tarantino, former CEO of Octo North America, as CEO of IMS (Americas), to lead the group’s international growth plans within the connected and usage-based insurance markets.