Jelliss moves across from the role of aftersales director, a role that he has held for six years, and replaces Peter Allibon, who becomes sales director following the recent departure of Mark Cameron.

Before joining Mazda as CRM manager in 2004, Jelliss worked at Ford (in the UK and Germany), Wunderman Europe (part of WPP) and in the UK telemarketing industry.

'Steve has a rich and varied background in the automotive industry, which makes him the right man for this job, at this time,” said Jeremy Thomson, managing director, Mazda UK. 'His new position at Mazda will give Steve a tremendous opportunity to not only develop our growing fleet capabilities to the next level, but also to bring a great aftersales focus to the role, which is a key strength for Mazda and buying reason for our fleet customers.'