Lex Board Profiles

Jon Walden Managing Director

Jon Walden is the Managing Director of Lex, the UK’s leading vehicle contract hire business.

He has been Managing Director for nine years, during which the business has grown substantially in scale and profitability. Key factors in this success have been a relentless focus on customer service, the introduction of Six Sigma, and the establishment of a new market, White Label.

Between 2000 and 2005, Jon was a main board member of RAC plc, when the recovery organisation owned 50% of Lex.

Before taking over the reins at Lex Jon was Managing Director of Lex Retail, which he built into the UK's largest franchised dealer group with over 100 sites nationwide.

Walden started life working for Xerox Corporation and Deloitte & Touche before joining Lex in its very successful Volvo importership. Under Lex stewardship Volvo recorded its highest sales performance ever in the UK of over 80,000 cars.

Jon Walden is 54 years old, married with two children.

Steve Hornsey Partnerships Director

Steve is responsible for our third party branded businesses as well as leading our Momentum Consultancy and Marketing teams.

He has been with Lex for 7 years and previously held European sales and marketing positions with Pitney Bowes and Sanwa Bank.

Mark BrownCommercial and Strategy DirectorDirector, Lex Corporate

Mark Brown is the commercial and strategy director of Lex. He is responsible for using Lex’s excellent reputation for customer service to grow the business both in the UK and Europe.

Mark is a member of the MILT - the Institute of Logistics and Transport and MIET - the Institute of Engineering and Technology and has worked for Mars, Accenture, BP and Shell in the UK, Holland and the United States.

Mark is married with twins and lives near Windsor. He has a passion for his family, travel and cars.

Antonia Pickles Business Improvement Director

Takes responsibility for the Six Sigma programme which engages the whole company in applying tried and tested techniques to improve customer service. Has worked for Lex for eleven years and had previous experience in the Finance team.

Kenny Napier HR Director

Responsible for providing strategic HR support to Lex. Kenny has been part of the HBOS Corporate Division for over four years supporting a diverse range of businesses such as Integrated, Structured and Acquisition Finance, and more recently Asset Solutions. Kenny's aim is to genuinely add value to Lex in enabling the business from a people perspective in support of the commercial plan.

Tom Walker Operations Director

Areas of responsibility include Claims Solutions, Pricing/Procurement/Re-Marketing, Driver Services, Daily Rental and Business Service Centre. He has worked in the automotive industry for over twenty years and is conversant with every aspect of the car market.

John Taylor Director, Sales

John joined Lex as a qualified accountant in 1995 after a career working in corporate finance.

After five years working in the Lex finance department he took on responsibility for pricing, procurement, supplier management and remarketing until 2003. This included a major project to outsource vehicle remarketing to British Car Auctions and a major review of contract hire pricing.

In 2003 he was given the role of managing all sales and customer service activity for major fleets, culminating in being promoted to the main Lex board in 2006. By this time he was responsible for the renamed Lex corporate business which ran 95,000 vehicles.

Since 2007 he has grown the fleet by 35% to 130,000 vehicles and increased profits to in excess of £50m. This has included a major integration of the Godfrey Davis business into Lex corporate when HBOS took over full ownership of the Lex business from Aviva.

Originally from Newcastle John is married with a young family.

Hugh Griffiths IT Director

Hugh joined Lex as IT Director from HBOS in 2007. He is responsible for managing all elements of IT within the business, including customer interaction as well as vehicle fleet and supplier management.

His job is to utilise the latest IT technology to provide innovative solutions to meet and exceed Lex customer needs.

Before joining Lex, Hugh spent eighteen years with HBOS Corporate Division in various IT roles, culminating in Head of IT.

Hugh is married with two children and in his spare time enjoys running.

Carol Parkes Finance Director

Responsible for all disciplines associated with the Finance activities in Lex. Carol has over twelve years service in the business and has a deep understanding of the nature and intricacies of the vehicle leasing market. Takes a strong interest in the Lex culture, particularly the company Values and the Lex Best Manager schemes.