Aston Barclay has appointed Karl Ward, previously remarketing manager at Ogilvie Fleet, as manager of its Wakefield ‘Northern Powerhouse’.

Ward has been in the vehicle auction and remarketing industry since 2006, in his role at Ogilvie he worked closely with Aston Barclay, selling over 2,500 units across four of its five sites.

Prior to this, Ward was head of operations and sales including senior auctioneer at British Car Auctions’ (BCA) Leeds site, previously SMA and, prior to that, Premier Motor Auctions when the Leeds site was the largest independent auction centre in the UK.

Ward said: “It is a very exciting time to be joining Aston Barclay as it pursues its strategy of ‘connecting customers to cars and driving the future of remarketing’.

"To have the opportunity to centre is local to me and therefore I understand the important role it plays in the local automotive community.

"I really look forward to supporting the business with its future development and growth strategies.”

As the centre manager of the group’s newest and most technologically advanced centre, Ward will build on the successes achieved since Wakefield opened in January 2019 and continue to deliver Aston Barclay’s stated goal of ‘connecting customers to cars’.

Wakefield currently offers twice weekly dealer sales and a weekly fleet sale offering in excess of 1,000 vehicles per week for leading national and regional dealer groups, as well as top fleets and finance houses.

Aston Barclay Group’s chief executive, Neil Hodson, said: “It is fantastic to welcome someone with Karl’s experience, insight and enthusiasm onboard to head up our Wakefield centre.

"We have worked closely with Karl for a number of years and very much look forward to supporting him in continuing to build on the centre’s successes to date.”