GAZ Group has appointed Evgeniy Vereshchagin as the new CEO of LDV Group following the surprise departure of Steve Young in January.

Young quit the job for “personal reasons”, leaving Martin Leach, LDV’s chairman, as interim CEO. Leach now returns to his sole role as chairman.

Vereshchagin said: "LDV has made good progress under the stewardship of GAZ in product development, manufacturing and sales. Our challenge now is to maximise the growth potential across the business portfolio."

Sergey Zanozin, chairman of the GAZ Group management board, said: "2008 will be a challenging year for the business with the implementation of Maxus production in Russia, the introduction of GAZ lean manufacturing systems at Drews Lane, Birmingham and our plans to increase Maxus sales in the UK and Europe by 50%."

Further to Evgeniy's appointment the LDV board of directors has made the decision to reinforce LDV's management team with unnamed specialists, from within production systems, finance, procurement and sales, who have gained experience from working within GAZ Group's Russian enterprises.