LeasePlan CEO to participate in Fleet Europe Summit 2018
Tex Gunning has just been confirmed as participant in a Fleet Europe Summit session on 28 November, on Fleet Electrification. The LeasePlan CEO has a radical vision on EVs: by 2030, LeasePlan’s entire fleet will be electric. If you’re a fleet manager, this is a unique chance to learn from the biggest, boldest electrification programme in the fleet industry.
As LeasePlan’s new CEO, Mr Gunning soon proved to be the equivalent of Captain James T. Kirk of the starship Enterprise: he was keen to boldly go where no lease company had gone before.
EV100
Under his guidance, LeasePlan joined EV100, a global transport initiative to speed up the uptake of EVs in corporate fleets. EV100 members commit to transition their fossil-fuel fleets to EV fleets by 2030 – and encourage other companies to do the same.
No fan of half measures, Mr Gunning determined that LeasePlan’s own employee fleet would transition completely to EVs already by 2021, the first major lease company to take such a radical step.
LeasePlan’s entire customer vehicle portfolio – currently 1.8 million vehicles across more than 30 countries – will follow by 2030.
End-to-end proposition
The company has put in place a number of innovative products and services to help its customers transition from fossil-fuelled to electric-powered mobility. These include 'LeasePlan Click & Drive', aimed at the SME segment; and an end-to-end EV proposition for the corporate segment.
In Mr Gunning’s vision, LeasePlan’s drive to lead the transition to electric mobility is not a standalone ambition, but part of its desire to lead the fleet industry as it transitions to a new paradigm, governed by the sharing principle. “In this fast-changing world, we aim to be the company that stands for What's Next”, he says.
Climate Leader
Tex Gunning (66) is an economics graduate of Erasmus University in Rotterdam. He has 25 years’ experience with Unilever, where his last role was Business Group President in Asia.
As CEO of Vedior, he oversaw that company’s acquisition by Randstad in 2008; as the result of that merger, it became the world’s second-largest recruitment company.
From 2008 to 2013, he was Managing Director of AkzoNobel, presiding over the merger of that company’s decorative paints division with ICI. From 2013 to 2016, he served as CEO of TNT Express, guiding its merger with FedEx.
In 2016, Mr Gunning was appointed CEO and Chairman of LeasePlan. Thanks in large part to his efforts to electrify the lease company’s fleet, he was elected Climate Sector Leader Automotive at the World Economic Forum in January 2018.
Click here to learn more about the Fleet Europe Summit and to register.
