Carwow appoints GoCompare VP Sally Foote as UK managing director

Carwow has appointed former GoCompare vice-president and Photobox chief innovation officer Sally Foote as its new UK managing director.

Foote joins the business as it embarks on an “exciting and ambitious phase of growth” which prompted a series of leadership changes last month.

Reporting to carwow chief operating officer John Veichmanis, Foote will manage a team of over 50 employees and oversee all aspects of the UK business, from commercial and operations through to acquisition and account management.

Foote said: “I'm really excited to be joining carwow. As more and more of our dealer and OEM partners focus on building high growth online distribution strategies , carwow is uniquely placed to help our partners connect with millions of consumers that are looking to sell their old car and buy a new one.”

Founder and chief executive James Hind – the subject of a ’10 Minutes With…’ interview in the latest edition of AM magazine – said the business will expand the breadth of the services it provides to car retailers and manufacturers in the coming months.

The developments follow an injection of $55 million (£41.5m) in funding to scale its Sell Your Car division back in December, a £17.2 million funding boost from investors including ITV and Channel 4 in March and the announcement of further investment from Geely’s Volvo Car UK brand in April.

In his interview, Hind said that the carwow might go public to raise more funds, but added that “now is not a great time”.

New addition Foote has more than 20 years of digital solutions experience, working across publishing, broadcast media and eCommerce. In her previous role as cie-president of eCommerce at GoCompare, she was responsible for leading the product, innovation and marketing divisions.

Prior to this, she was chief innovation officer at Photobox, where she led the development of new revenue lines and physical product development.

Foote has also held positions at The Guardian and The Times and Sunday Times.

Veichmanis said: “It’s wonderful to have Sally join the team at this important stage in our evolution.  Across the entire business, we’re super focused on building new capabilities and services to help our partners source and sell quality used stock online in parallel to our investments in our new car selling platform.

“Sally’s experience across product, marketing and online operations will be invaluable to us as we seek to help more dealers and brand partners leverage the significant growth in online engagement that we’ve seen over the last 12 months.”