David Powels, MD of Volkswagen SA, has been elected to a second one-year term as president of the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of SA Naamsa). Bodo Donauer, CEO of BMW SA, was re-elected as first vice-president and Nissan SA’s MD, Mike Whitfield was elected second vice-chairman.
Jeffery Nemeth has been appointed president and CEO of Ford Southern Africa. He succeeds Hal Feder, who returned to the US at the end of last year after a two year spell in SA. Nemeth, who joined Ford in 1995, was previously president of Ford Lio Ho Taiwan.
Feder (50) has been appointed the new head of sales for Ford and Lincoln Mercury in the US. He is a lifetime Ford employee, and has replaced Randy Ortiz (61) who has retired. Feder’s father, Hal Feder Sr. was a regional manager for Ford for 20 years.
Johan Richards has been appointed CEO of Nissan Diesel Soouth Africa. He is the first South African to hold this position. His predecessor Masao Takizawa returned to Japan at the end of the year. Richards and his chief financial officer, Jacques Carelse will continue to the only local members of the NDSA board.
Two new appointments, as non-executive directors to the board of McCarthy Limited, have been announced by the company’s Chief Executive Officer, Brand Pretorius. The new directors are Bongi Thwala, the Commercial Director for Bid Industrial and Commercial Products, and Gillian McMahon, the Group Transformation Executive at the Bidvest corporate office.
Pretorius says they are both well qualified and experienced executives in the Bidvest Group and he believes they will make a valuable contribution to the ongoing success of McCarthy Limited, one of the largest retail automotive groups in South Africa.
