Tod Evans, managing director of Peugeot Motor Company, has been elected president of Ben - the motor industry's benevolent fund.

In his acceptance speech, Mr Evans said: "Recent events in North America will affect economic activity and feed through to impact on the levels of income we can generate for our charity. But we, as trustees, are fully signed up to Ben's five year plan with its 5% year-on-year growth objective and I feel confident we will make progress over the coming years."

The strategy, he said, is to move more revenue into income on which we can rely through some kind of structured plan as opposed to a discretionary gesture to broaden the base of income generation to more parts of the motor industry and allied trades.

The role of president is for two years. Mr Evans takes over from Sue Brownson, managing director of Bluebell (Wilmslow).