11:56 am, July 19, 2022
CarGurus has made Amanda Symonds the new managing director of its UK business.
She will lead the CarGurus UK and PistonHeads teams and joins the used car buying platform and Car Dealer podcast sponsor with more than a decade of online marketplace business experience.
Symonds started her career as a chartered accountant before moving into the investment banking sector, managing several successful merger and acquisition transactions.
Her finance role took her to Boston in the USA, where she worked on several cross-border deals and later studied for an MBA at MIT Sloan School of Management, graduating in 2010.
Post-business school, Symonds spent almost seven years at Tripadvisor in a broad range of roles, giving her an in-depth understanding of online marketplaces.
At CarGurus, her role will be to help drive consumer demand, supplier engagement and revenue growth.
Sam Zales, president and chief operating officer at CarGurus, said: ‘I couldn’t be more excited to add Amanda’s broad talents to our international leadership team.
‘We are fortunate to be acquiring her strategic, operational and – most importantly – career-development and people-management ability to lead our UK business.’
Symonds commented: ‘I’m thrilled to be joining the senior leadership team of CarGurus and to be taking on the managing director role of the UK business.
‘I know the UK car market as a consumer and I’m excited to apply my online marketplace knowledge to the rapidly changing automotive space.
‘CarGurus has grown to become the number one player in the US, and it’s my intention to lead CarGurus UK and PistonHeads to new innovations and new heights via a team effort.’
She has replaced Wendy Harris, who left in May 2021 to become head of EMEA at Gong.
CarGurus was founded in 2006 by Langley Steinert, who co-founded Tripadvisor in 2000.
