Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles has appointed Alex Smith, VW passenger cars head of retail operations, as its new managing director and he will start the job on November 1.

Smith takes over from Simon Elliott who recently accepted a new position as managing director of Volkswagen Group Ireland.

Smith has a 16 year career in the motor industry and joined the Volkswagen Group four years ago. His previous roles include a spell as head of group parts operations where he was responsible for the trade parts specialists network.

Prior to this Smith worked for Ford and Kia with responsibility for operations, fleet, aftersales, planning and marketing.