Tara Williams re-joins AutoProtect Group at a crucial time for F&I
Highly respected compliance expert Tara Williams will be re-joining AutoProtect Group at the start of March, filling the newly created role of Chief Risk and Compliance Officer. Additionally, she will become Managing Director of i-Comply Online – the business she headed up following its acquisition by AutoProtect in 2014.
Tara’s appointment comes at a crucial time for dealer F&I as successive Financial Conduct Authority reports – published in October and November 2019 – signal changes to the established operating model1.
Tara joins AutoProtect Group from leading motor retailer Group 1 Automotive, where she has been the business’ F&I and Compliance Director, working with 11 OEM brands across 65 dealerships. A long career in motor finance and her own extensive and successful track record building i-Comply ensure Tara is exceptionally well qualified to lead AutoProtect Group’s compliance strategy. The appointment coincides with AutoProtect Group seeking to expand its dealer support activities significantly, as Group CEO Matthew Briggs notes;
“Driven by regulation, digitisation and changing customer expectations, the motor retailing and F&I model is changing. As a business, AutoProtect Group is determined to be at the heart of supporting dealers through this dynamic period.
For us, this means a root and branch review and reinvention of our model, creating fresh, innovative new ways to help our retailer customers to develop their approach in an assured, compliant and customer-centric manner. An example of such innovation is DealTrak’s platform enhancements, demanded by retailers, designed to boost digital compliance functionality and provide ‘single click F&I’ capabilities.
Tara is superbly qualified to help us understand and bridge the needs of all our retailer clients; it is great to welcome her back.
At the same time, I want to thank Group 1 Automotive for their understanding and support through this appointment. They have been and will continue to be a highly valued customer.”
Reflecting upon her new role, Tara observes:
“I am delighted to be re-joining AutoProtect Group. It will be wonderful to work with many of the people I know from my previous time within the company. However, I recognise that the market has moved on and that embracing the developments in regulatory compliance is business-critical to the motor retail community; something I have experienced first-hand on a daily basis in my current post.
In my new role, I aim to work across the group with AutoProtect, DealTrak and Shine! to develop a new standard of compliance support for dealers, which can be embraced by all retailers regardless of scale.”