Pretoria, April 15 2014 – Jaguar Land Rover South Africa and sub-Sahara Africa’s new Finance Director, Liaan Kretzschmar, joins the company with a wealth of financial experience in the motor industry – both locally and abroad.
Liaan started at JLR SA and SSA in January, after almost two years at a major heavy commercial vehicle manufacturer and retailer, where he was in charge of finance and administration across a number of truck and bus brands. Prior to that he held the position of Group Reporting Manager at the McLaren Group and was based at the famous McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, England. In this role he interacted with the Formula One team, McLaren Automotive, and other diverse business entities within the McLaren Group.
Liaan grew up and went to school in Mpumalanga and obtained his B.Comm Accountancy degree at the University of the North-West. He then served his articles with audit, tax and consulting firm, KPMG, qualifying as a Chartered Account in 2007.
In early 2008 he went abroad, joining the audit division of KPMG’s Gatwick Office in West Sussex, England. McLaren was at first an audit client during his time with KPMG and then became his employer, when Liaan made his move into the world of commerce in May 2010. He returned to South Africa at the start of 2012.
Says Liaan: “This is a massively important time for both the Jaguar and Land Rover brands, both in SA and abroad. The company is doing exceptionally well internationally and the product pipeline is very exciting.
“Having overall financial responsibility for JLR SA and SSA is a great opportunity for me, but brings with it great responsibility and unique challenges: the South African market is highly competitive in the premium segments in which we are represented. Managing the threats, together with such challenges as the exchange rate volatility, certainly makes my job interesting. In addition, our nine sub-Saharan markets are a melting pot of political, cultural, regulatory and other challenges. Africa is exceptionally important as a future market and Jaguar Land Rover needs to be well positioned to capitalise on growth opportunities.”
Liaan joins the JLR team with the objective of providing financial oversight and strategic financial guidance, while at the same time keeping rigorous control of all financial aspects of the business. His various qualifications; including M.Comm South African and International Taxation, B Comm (Hons) Chartered Accountancy and Certificate in the Theory of Accounting (CTA) will stand him in good stead in the execution of these duties.
