Senior reshuffle for Daimler Oz

Daimler Truck & Bus Australia/Pacific has announced a raft of looming senior management changes, with Fuso General Manager Richard Eyre (pictured) moving to a newly created shared role with Daimler Truck Asia, and his previous role being filled by Mercedes-Benz Truck & Bus General Manager, Justin Whitford (also pictured).

In turn, Mr Whitford's role as head of Mercedes-Benz Truck & Bus will be filled by Michael May, who has been Dealer Principal for Daimler's factory-owned Somerton and Laverton dealerships in Melbourne for the past four years.

The reshuffle will take effect from November 1.

The Managing Director of Daimler Truck & Bus Australia/Pacific, Daniel Whitehead, says Mr Eyre's new role will see him split his time between Australia and Japan.

"Richard's taken on a new role that we've developed for him in conjunction with Tokyo, which is General Manager, Strategic Partners and Business Development," he said.

"He will be doing key account work with some of the fleets like Toll, Linfox and others that have a presence all across Asia, giving us a more coordinated approach."

Mr Eyre assumes the new role after 14 years in the top job at Fuso Australia, and so will now apply his experience across a broader section of the wider Daimler business.

"He'll be doing a lot of mentoring with [Daimler] Trucks Asia, with their distributors and with their staff, passing on his knowledge and experience and helping them develop their business," said Mr Whitehead.

"I think it's perfectly suited to him and we get the best of both worlds – we don't lose him from those relationships."

Mr Whitford steps into the role of General Manager at Fuso Australia after 18 months as General Manager at Mercedes-Benz Truck & Bus, also heading up 'Benz's bus division for 12 months before that. In that time he's helped reshape the business and lay the foundations for the next generation of Mercedes-Benz trucks, which are now undergoing local development and testing ahead of their release toward the end of next year.

"Justin has done a terrific job at 'Benz, shaking it up," said Mr Whitehead.

"It won't be the same at Fuso but it's a generational change and everything will be looked at again. We think there's a lot of upside for Fuso, maybe with things done in a more strategic way than they have been in the past. I don't mean that as a negative, I just think it's the next phase."

Michael May has been with Daimler Truck & Bus for over 15 years, and brings extensive engineering and aftersales experience to his new role.

"From a company perspective it's been a really good story that he's been able to head out into retail, develop himself and then step back into this role," said Mr Whitehead.

"He's done a tremendous job as Dealer Principal at our two Melbourne dealerships."

Mr Whitehead said the reshuffle represented a win for Fuso, Mercedes-Benz, and the wider Daimler business.

"In this case I think one plus one equals three," he said.

"Tokyo really wanted to utilise Richard's skills but we get to keep the best of him, so we get an additional 50 per cent plus the other guys in their jobs.

"We've got a fantastic guy who's now unburdened or unshackled by the corporate bureaucracy that comes with being a General Manager in the world's biggest automotive company – he's now able to concentrate on sales, key account management and business development, and I think that's the best part of him. He'll just thrive on that."