Richard Parkin (pictured), former head of valuations at Glass's, has joined Grant Thornton's transaction advisory services as an automotive sector specialist.

As part of its strategy to expand its expertise in the automotive sector, financial and business adviser Grant Thornton Parkin will work alongside Tarun Mistry, Neil Barrell, Paul Burrows and Christian Roelofs to deliver advisory services across the industry.

Tarun Mistry, partner, automotive advisory, said; "Richard brings specific expertise of the UK automotive market which perfectly complements our automotive advisory team and our well established asset and motor finance team. 

"His specific expertise in vehicle residual values will be very relevant with regards to the various transactional advisory work we deliver. 

"He also brings consulting skills to further strengthen our offering and this is aligned to where we are seeing growing market demands."

As head of valuations at Glass's Information Services, a position he held from October 2012, he was a commentator on residual value behaviour in the UK car and LCV markets. 

Prior to this role however, Parkin had spent more than 10 years as a strategy consultant, principally working with automotive and related clients.

Parkin said; "It was a great fit: Grant Thornton was able to provide me with the opportunity to focus on consulting work and, with their existing expertise, allow me to serve clients in a wider capacity."