Phil Popham
Phil Popham is a British Business man who has mainly been employed in the automotive industry. He had a long career at Jaguar Land Rover, and latterly was the chief executive officer of Lotus Cars. He has also been CEO of Sunseeker during his career.
Background
He was born in 1965 in Redditch, Worcestershire, England, and graduated with a BSc in management studies from the University of Aston, Birmingham.Career
Jaguar Land Rover
Having joined Land Rover as a graduate trainee in 1988, Popham held a number of senior positions in the company including Director of Land Rover European Operations, marketing director for Land Rover South Africa, and Vice President of Marketing for Land Rover North America.He briefly joined Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles in the UK in 1999 before returning to Land Rover to become UK Sales Director in 2001. Two years of record sales followed and saw him promoted to become managing director of both Jaguar and Land Rover UK national sales companies in 2003.
In 2006, following the departure of Matthew Taylor, Popham was promoted to a board level role as Land Rover Global Managing Director where he was responsible for the sales and marketing operations of Land Rover globally. He held this role until 2010, when he became Global Sales and Service Operations Director, with responsibility for the global sales and after sales operations of both brands, overseeing the regional business units and worldwide dealer network. During his time as Jaguar Land Rover sales director, overall sales increased significantly fuelled by increased demand for the Land Rover product lines as sport utility vehicles gained popularity, and the business expanding into a number of global markets, most notably China.
In 2013, he moved to his final role at Jaguar Land Rover to become Group Marketing Director with responsibility for all global marketing activity for both brands, including product marketing, consumer insight, communications, and experiential.