Ridgeway Group has appointed Daniel Taylor to the new position of finance director.

Taylor is a chartered accountant (ACA) and was previously a partner with Grant Thornton.

He has more than 15 years experience of the automotive sector on both the retailer and manufacturer sides, is a regular speaker at automotive seminars and contributes to many industry publications.

He studied economics at Leeds University before training as a chartered accountant with Grant Thornton. He went on to qualify as an insolvency practitioner in 2003, spending the majority of time at Grant Thornton working in the automotive sector, and has led their national automotive team for the last three years.

John O’Hanlon (pictured left with Taylor), chief executive of the AM100 dealer group, said: “Dan’s experience of the sector, Ridgeway’s brand partners and Ridgeway’s funders is unrivalled and will allow Ridgeway to move up another gear. He firmly fits with our ambitions to be the best and he is very much relishing the opportunity of working with all of us in formulating and driving our strategy for the next five years and beyond.”