Directorate Change

RNS Number : 9555O

Optare PLC

27 September 2011

 



Optare plc

("Optare" or the "Company")

Board Changes

Optare announces that David Stonehouse has stepped down from the Board to progress other business interests and that Jorma Halonen has been appointed as a Non-Executive Director with effect from 27th September 2011.

Jorma Halonen, 62, a Finnish citizen, has over 18 years' experience of working in the bus and truck industry.  He spent seven years working with the Volvo Group, latterly as the Group Deputy CEO and Chairman of Volvo Bus Corporation. Prior to that Mr Halonen was President and CEO of Volvo Truck Corporation.  Before joining the Volvo Group, he was President and CEO of Scania Latin America in Sao Paulo, Brazil and President and CEO for Oy Scan-Automotive AB (a Scania importer) in Helsinki, Finland.

John Fickling, Chairman, commenting said, "We are grateful to David for his contributions to the Company, thank him for all his advice and efforts and wish him well for the future.  We are delighted to welcome Jorma to the Board, who brings a wealth of international experience in the commercial vehicle sector and will be a great asset to the Company at a time when the Company is expanding abroad".

Save as disclosed below there are no additional disclosures to be made in accordance with paragraph (g) of Schedule 2 of the AIM rules in relation to Jorma Halonen.

The companies of which Jorma Halonen has been a director in the past five years are as follows:

Volvo Group

Volvo do Brasil

Mack Trucks Inc

Volvo Bus Corporation

Volvo Construction Equipment

Volvo Financial Services

Renault Trucks

Volvo Trucks North America Inc

Volvo (China)

Volvo Automotive Finance (China) Ltd

Nissan Diesel Motor Co., Ltd

Asia Truck Operations

Scan Auto

Assa Abloy

Niscayah Group AB

SEMCON

National Industrial Clusters Development Program*

CPS Color*

Elektrobit*

TDM Friction*

Ashok-Leyland*

Hinduja Group*

*current directorship

For further information please contact:

Optare plc                      Tel: [phone]

Jim Sumner - Chief Executive

Cenkos Securities plc        Tel: [phone]

Stephen Keys/Camilla Hume   

 

END

 

 

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