Cinch appoints Leanne Thames as operations director

Cinch has named Leanne Thames (pictured above) as its new operations director and appointed Amy Townsend as senior marketing director.

Thames joins the online used car business from BMW, where she was head of used cars and internal sales. Thames has previously worked in the Insurance sector with RBS Insurance, Direct Line Group and esure. 

Cinch says her experience and established network in the automotive sector is expected to help drive it forward as she takes on responsibility for developing its customer proposition; building partnerships with dealers, OEMs and Leasing Companies, and boosting cinch’s Finance and Insurance offering.

Townsend (pictured below) joins as senior marketing director and has extensive experience in building brands and leading marketing teams in high-growth digital, direct-to-consumer businesses.

She has led marketing for Now TV, Sky Broadband, TalkTalk and most recently for the Consumer division at ITV, where she launched the SVOD service BritBox from the BBC and ITV. 

Townsend will take responsibility for leading the growing Brand and Marketing team under the management of Robert Bridge, chief customer officer.

Avril Palmer-Baunack, chairman of Constellation Automotive Group, cinch owners, said: “We are delighted to have Leanne and Amy join the team. Leanne is hugely experienced and her industry knowledge will be vital as we look to further our rapid growth and consumer offering. Amy will be a great asset to the cinch team in driving the marketing team and its plans, to ensure our continuous success.”

In eight months, Cinch has become the largest online B2C marketplace for used cars in the UK and is currently generating annualised sales of more than 50,000 vehicles.