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Directors

Harwoods is a privately owned automotive retail group based on the south coast of England, serving customers from across Hampshire, Surrey, Sussex, Kent and beyond.

Our established family business, with a reputation for high standards, was founded over 85 years ago – so we are true experts in our field.

Guy Harwood

Chairman

Bio:

Harwoods was established by Wally Harwood, father of Guy Harwood and was based at London Road Pulborough.

1965-1996, Guy began riding out for Ryan Price at Findon at the age of 18, Guy would go on to win 40 point to point winners and 14 National Hunt Races. Over the next few years he started working as a pupil assistant trainer to Bryan Marshall when he was 21 and five years later in 1965 he commenced training under permit.

Owned Petworth, Pulborough and Storrington Harwoods Garages during that time and went on to buy Coombelands Farm, where he developed Coombelands Racing Stables.

Guy joins the garage business full time during 1992. The size and profile of the Group is increased as is the investment and management structure.

Interests:

Golf, Bridge, Shooting.  Previously Cricket & Tennis (and used to play to a good level) and rode to hounds.

 

Archie Harwood

CEO

Bio:

Archie grew up with the business performing a variety of roles prior to being appointed to the board in 2012 as Business Development Director. Archie’s proudest achievement in that role was leading the creation of the company’s forward vision in collaboration with his fellow directors. The Harwoods vision statement "Creating memorable experiences" reflects Archie’s personal motivation as well as the motivations of others he observed growing up in the business. He believes Harwoods does this naturally but is keen to ensure this is a daily focus for all team members – he believes this is how Harwoods can stand out in the market. Archie is enormously excited to have taken up the position of CEO in 2018, as someone who is inspired by human interaction, a variety of workload and being able to look at the big picture, he feels the position is perfect for him. Archie is optimistic for the future of the auto retail industry and his main goal for the future is attracting and developing the best teams of people who are passionate and innovative in driving the business forward towards it’s omnichannel future.

Interests:

Skiing, tennis, socialising

 

Paul Suter

Finance Director

Bio:

Paul has a degree in Accountancy with Computing from the University of Kent at Canterbury. He qualified as a Chartered Accountant with first time passes in 1982.

He has worked in Motor Retail since 1990 and joined Harwoods in 1997. In the last 21 years Paul has been core to the growth of Harwoods through the many acquisitions. As a result, turnover has grown 20 times from £30m to £600m.

As you would expect from an accountant Paul is a detail oriented person who takes pride in running a ‘clean’ set of books for the company.

Outside of work Paul is an active member of his local church where he is a trustee. He also sits on the board of two other charities run by friends of his from church. One of these, Children on the Edge, was one of three charities chosen by The Times for their Christmas 2017 appeal, due to their work with the Rohingya refugees from Myanmar.

Interests:

Music (playing & listening), theatre, canal network

 

Paul Mitchell

Group Aftersales Manager

Bio:

I Joined the motor industry in 1991 in a Land Rover Dealer -  Then joined Harwoods in 2003 as a Trade Rep @ Coulsdon site in the parts Dept 2yrs, went onto be a Service advisor at Croydon for 6 months, then went onto manage Edenbridge Parts Department for 3 years before taking on responsibility for both Edenbridge and Tonbridge Parts Depts until 2012, when I was appointed the Group Parts Manager – until Nov 2017 when I appointed into my current role.

Interests:

Brighton Season ticket holder, big F1 fan. I Took a year off work to Travel the world, which included Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Australia and New Zealand before joining Harwoods, I found this a great experience and learnt so much.

 

Martin Kay

Group F&I Manager

Bio:

Overseeing the Group’s Financial Services operations and FCA compliance, Martin has been part of Harwoods since 2014.
Working within the automotive industry for over 25 years, with the majority of time involved with F&I, he has an avid fondness for numbers, finance figures and compliance!
With ever increasing regulations and governance by the FCA, Treating Customers Fairly is always at the forefront of our company’s ethos and culture.
With extensive financial and operational skills gained from over 15 years’ experience and knowledge at Group level, this enables Martin to make strong contributions to strategy, development and compliance to this sector of the business.

Interests:

Outside of work, he supports Harlequins Rugby and over the years he has participated in numerous endurance sporting events, and has completed two Ironman Triathlons, multi-day cycle challenges and is a keen open-water swimmer. Time now is spent with the family or with his two flatcoated retrievers which he works during the winter months on shoots around West Sussex.

 

Eamon Bradley

Board Director

Bio:

Born Motherwell, Scotland. Graduate of Strathclyde University BSc Honours, Chartered Production Engineer. Companies worked for: Honeywell Mars Group TSB/Swan National GE & GEC Jardine Matheson. Specialised in the management of joint ventures in USA, Europe and Asia. With ever increasing regulations and governance by the FCA, Treating Customers Fairly is always at the forefront of our company’s ethos and culture.

Interests:

Fly fishing, golf and works of art

 

Scott Paddock

Operation Director

Bio:

Having started in the Motor industry in 1992 as a valeter then sales executive, I joined Harwoods following the 2004 acquisition of Testwood Motor Group Ltd taking on the role of Group Fleet Sales Manager.
I was promoted to the main Harwoods board in April 2009 to take the position of Audi Brand Director for the Harwoods Audi market area and was then also asked to oversee our Volkswagen Trade Parts Specialist (TPS) division, the Audi corporate sales department and the Harwoods MAN truck centre.
In April 2017 I took on the role of Operations Director for Harwoods, responsible for our 17 franchised outlets representing Audi, Bentley, Aston Martin and Jaguar Land Rover. Due to the size of our JLR Division I also represents Harwoods as JLR Franchise Director and sit on the JLR Retail Board.

 

Nick Jones

Audi Brand Director

Bio:

Nick has worked in the Motor Trade since 1997 and joined Harwoods in 2012 as Head of Business at Five Oaks Audi before moving to Portsmouth Audi in 2013. Outside of work Nick fills his spare time socialising with friends and family with the occasional game of golf.

Interests:

Golf & Cycling

 

Dan Elson

Commercial Director

Bio:

Dan is an entrepreneur who has founded many successful start-up investments within the tech and video games sector.
Dan led successful ISP start-ups in the 1990’s and has more recently enjoyed commercial success within the Cloud Infrastructure and services sector.
Dan has worked very closely with co-investor Chris in several new mobile studio start-ups in the ‘free to play’ space.
Dan has a love for food and drink. He collects wine and often travels the world on the quest for exciting cuisine.
Dan lives in Sussex on a smallholding and farms rare breed sheep as well as maintaining his numerous beehives. Aside from beekeeping, other passions include racing cars, tennis and fly fishing.
Dan is passionate about business start-ups and delivering exciting ideas.

Interests:

Race cars, Food and Wine, Beekeeping

 

Craig Chapman

Head of Business

Bio:

Craig became Head of Business in January and is now responsible for both Bentley Hampshire and Sussex. Craig was previously based at Head Office and was awarded the prestigious ‘Bentley Retailer of the year in 2015’ following this up with ‘Bentley Head of Business’ in 2016 and 2017 With a 20year pedigree in the motor trade having a deep knowledge on all aspects of automotive retailing.
‘I was attracted to Harwoods by its reputation as a professional family run business. It has an emphasis on growth, both at a business level but also at a personal level for all its employees. We are a family business, but we are able to compete with the best in the industry. I would advise anybody thinking of Harwoods not to hesitate, it’s a very professional business with plenty of opportunity for development. In my role as Head of Business I lead by example, making sure our brand values are integral to everything we do and how we behave’.

Interests:

Spending time with family, visiting the gym, cycling and socialising, he is also a qualified Rugby Coach for under 13’s

 

Amanda Perrett

Race Horse Trainer / Harwoods Director

Bio:

I was brought up at Coombelands Racing Stables in Pulborough, where my father Guy Harwood trained over 1600 winners, 30 of which were at Group 1 Level including Champion racehorse Dancing Brave.  I rode successfully as an amateur jockey winning 90 races and became the first lady to ride in the Champion Hurdle at the 1990 Cheltenham Festival.  I also rode as an event rider winning the three-day event at Punchestown in Ireland and represented England in Italy later that year. In 1996, I took over the racehorse training licence at Coombelands Stables from my father Guy and have since trained over 680 winners.  Coombelands Racing Stables is a family run business, my husband Mark and children Ryan and Emma taking an active part and I take much pride in providing a good service to our loyal owners and staff.

Interests:

I enjoy taking an active part in the leadership of Harwoods with my Father, Archie and team.  Outside of work my interest are my family, skiing and all sporting activities.