AutoProtect Group has appointed Tara Williams to the newly-created role of chief risk and compliance officer.

She re-joins the business having left in 2018 to join Group 1 Automotive as F&I and compliance director.

Williams previously held the role of compliance director at AutoProtect for four years.

The appointment coincides with AutoProtect Group seeking to expand its dealer support activities significantly. The company says the appointment comes at a crucial time for dealer F&I as successive Financial Conduct Authority reports - published in October and November 2019 - signal changes to the established operating model

AutoProtect Group CEO Matthew Briggs said: “Driven by regulation, digitisation and changing customer expectations, the motor retailing and F&I model is changing. As a business, AutoProtect Group is determined to be at the heart of supporting dealers through this dynamic period.

“For us, this means a root and branch review and reinvention of our model,  creating fresh, innovative new ways to help our retailer customers to develop their approach in an assured, compliant and customer-centric manner. An example of such innovation is DealTrak’s platform enhancements, demanded by retailers, designed to boost digital compliance functionality and provide ‘single click F&I’ capabilities.

“Tara is superbly qualified to help us understand and bridge the needs of all our retailer clients; it is great to welcome her back.

“At the same time, I want to thank Group 1 Automotive for their understanding and support through this appointment. They have been and will continue to be a highly valued customer.”

Williams will also become managing director of i-Comply Online - the business she headed up following its acquisition by AutoProtect in 2014. 

She said: “I am delighted to be re-joining AutoProtect Group. It will be wonderful to work with many of the people I know from my previous time within the company. However, I recognise that the market has moved on and that embracing the developments in regulatory compliance is business-critical to the motor retail community; something I have experienced first-hand on a daily basis in my current post.”

In her new role, Williams will work across the group with AutoProtect, DealTrak and Shine! to develop a new standard of compliance support for dealers, which can be embraced by all retailers regardless of scale.