Julie Summerell has been named ACFO’s first regional chairman following an ACFO members’ vote. The appointment was announced last night by ACFO national chairman John Pryor at the organisation’s annual awards dinner.
Summerell is managing director of fleet services company TR Fleet, part of the SAFO Group, and has been an active member of ACFO for more than 20 years, serving as a Midlands region officer since 2006 and chairman since 2008.
James Pestell, currently secretary of ACFO’s East Anglia region, was elected as regional secretary unopposed ? both he and Summerell will serve for 12 months.
Founded more than 40 years ago with meetings and networking focused around nine regions of the UK, ACFO is to reduce to one region due to dwindling attendances at meetings and introduce regional webinars as well as continuing to hold twice-yearly seminars on key issues.
Pryor said: “The fleet industry and the role of the fleet decision-maker continues to evolve and so must ACFO.
“We believe that the new structure, which will see the twice-a-year regional meetings replaced by spring and autumn webinars to keep members up-to-date with the very latest ACFO, regulatory and legislative news, coupled with our seminar programme tackling agenda-topping issues, will prove popular and less time-consuming than travelling to attend regional meetings.
“As a result, we hope the development will act as a springboard to encourage employees with fleet management responsibility to join ACFO and take part in the webinars from their offices. Today’s technology enables fleet operators to interact and discuss key issues without the need to network in person at meetings, simultaneously having a positive environmental impact.”
