Claas UK has announced a number of changes to its Senior Management Team and management structure that will see Jeremy Wiggins and Brian Wain taking on full responsibility for their respective sales and after sales divisions within Claas UK, with Oliver Hölscher joining as the new chief financial officer.
The announcement of these important new appointments within Claas UK reflects the Company’s continued expansion within the UK and Ireland markets, and follows the appointment of Trevor Tyrrell as the new senior vice-president for Western Europe. In addition to maintaining his role as CEO for Claas UK, Mr Tyrrell will also have responsibility for France, Spain, Italy, Greece and neighbouring markets, along with Oceania, for which he has been responsible since 2011.
Jeremy Wiggins has been appointed to the new role of chief customer officer (CCO), overseeing both sales and marketing, but also logistics and business services within the company. Mr Wiggins initially worked at Claas as a placement student from Harper Adams University, before joining the two-year graduate marketing programme working in the company’s marketing department in 1996. From there, he progressed to product specialist for balers and greenline products in 1998, then product manager and finally national sales manager, before taking on his current role of sales and marketing director in 2016.
Mr Wiggins will lead a new senior sales management team comprising John Haines in charge of logistics; business development manager Bob Townson; and Steffan Kurtz, who’s been appointed to the new role of product marketing manager. Mr Kurtz joined Claas in 2017 as product specialist for tractors before being made tractor brand manager in 2018.
David Thornton has taken on the role of product manager for tractors and materials handlers. He will be based in the Claas Ireland office at Duleek, north of Dublin, where he will continue with his current regional product support role in Ireland. Mr Thornton was a Claas Scholar at Harper Adams University, after which he completed a 12-month internship with Claas in Germany prior to returning to Claas UK as a tractor sales training instructor. He will work alongside Michael Ives, who is also product manager for tractors and materials handlers based at Saxham, Suffolk.
Brian Wain takes on the new role of chief operating officer (COO) with responsibility for the after service and parts divisions. Mr Wain joined Claas UK in 2004 following the take-over of Renault Agriculture, where he initially started as technical assistant before being promoted to area after-sales manager for Wales and the South-west.
At Claas, he initially took on the role of technical manager for tractors, before progressing to Claas Academy manager in 2012. In 2015 he was promoted to customer service manager and made a director in 2016.
He will head a new senior after-sales management team comprising of David McEwan-Smith (parts manager), Alex Day (technical service manager), Andrew Dunne (Claas Academy manager) and Rob Fillingham (head of tractors and connected systems).
Oliver Hölscher has been appointed as the new chief financial officer (CFO), and replaces Thomas Spiering who has been promoted to senior vice president middle Europe.
Mr Hölscher joined Claas in 2008 and has held a number of production controlling and R&D controlling positions within the company. For the past five years he has been head of sales for Claas Industrietechnik GmbH, based at Paderborn, Germany, where he headed up a sales team of seven international sales managers, travelling the world selling cabs, Terra Trac units and axles to OEM manufacturers.
For more information visit: www.claas.co.uk.
