The former president and CEO of AutoTrader.com and Kelly Blue Book in the United States, Chip Perry (pictured), is joining Auto Trader in the UK as a non-executive board member.

Perry said: “We have a very strong position among consumers, dealers, and OEMs in the UK and I'm excited about the things the company is doing to help its customers accelerate their adoption of online tools and software solutions. 

"Digital marketing technologies and data analytics tools are improving very quickly all around the world and are bringing many important new benefits to automotive marketers.  My goal is to help Auto Trader bring these advancements to the UK market as rapidly as possible, and empower our customers to gain maximum value from them."

“Chip Perry has been a pioneer in the transformation of the automotive digital industry in the United States, and I am sure that he will be a great asset to our company and our customers,” said Jonathan Williams, marketing director at Auto Trader.

“He built the world's largest automotive website and oversaw the creation of a wide array of tools and solutions that are helping thousands of dealers in the United States to grow their presence online."

Chip Perry became the first employee of AutoTrader.com in August 1997 and was its president and chief executive from inception until March 2013. 

He started the company for Cox Enterprises and it became the world’s largest automotive site, featuring three million vehicles, working with 40,000 dealers.

While Perry was at the helm of AutoTrader.com the company pioneered a wide range of innovations, including real time integration with dealer inventory management systems, a unified approach to new and used car search, data analytics tools to help dealers better match their inventory to market demand and price them competitively, and a consultative sales and service model that enabled dealers to more quickly adopt best practices on the internet.