Gareth Robinson – Managing Director

Managing Director of Carrentals.co.uk, Gareth Robinson, is one of the founders of the company in 2003 and is passionate about offering customers and suppliers a fairer, more genuine price comparison service.

His focus throughout the growth of Carrentals.co.uk has been on creating a website that offers the widest choice of car hire around the world at the best possible prices, while providing customers with advice and support on a growing range of travel issues.

Andy Stevens – Business Support Director

Andy is one of the original founders of ASAP Ventures. Based in the Lightwater office, Andy is responsible for the team that provides Finance, Legal and HR support to all companies within the ASAP group, including Carrentals.co.uk snd Discountvouchers.co.uk.

His previous experience includes ten years at the leading consultancy firm Accenture, where he was a senior manager in their Comms and High Tech Division, focusing on the technical implementation of Supply Chain systems.

Debbie Sowden – Head of Product & Commercial Partnerships

Debbie Sowden joined ASAP Ventures in September 2007 as Head of Product and Commercial Partnerships for the Carrentals.co.uk brand. Her previous role was as Acting Commercial Director at Holiday Autos part of the lastminute.com group.

Within her role at ASAP Ventures Debbie is responsible for all commercial partnerships with brokers and brands that feature on the car rental comparison site. Debbie also works closely with the Technical team to implement new suppliers onto the site and the Marketing Team to maximise email and promotional activity. Media sales also fall under Debbie’s remit.

Andy Mayer – Project Manager

Andrew joined ASAP Ventures in 2007 as Project Manager and Senior Manager of the Wales office. He is responsible for all planning, development, implementation and delivery of projects, reporting regularly to the Managing Director. Andrew is also responsible for day-to-day management of the Wales office staff and external contractors.

Previously Andrew had worked for seven years at a further education college as a Finance Technician, responsible for management accounts and budget control.

Andrew is a qualified Accounting Technician and passed his PRINCE2 Practitioner qualification in March 2011.

Simon McLaughlin – Head of Technology

Simon joined Carrentals, straight out of university, in October 2005 and is one of the longest serving members of staff. He started as a web developer and worked his way up to senior developer by 2009. In January 2012 he was made Head of Technology and works closely with his team to ensure users of Carrentals get the best experience when looking for car hire. He also liaises with suppliers to ensure their product feeds all work correctly to deliver those all-important car hire deals.

Dean Houghton – Head of Infrastructure

Dean joined the team in October 2010 to manage and control our systems infrastructure. He is in charge of managing and maintaining the website, server and network access, all of which ensure the site is always operational and fully functional.

Prior to working at Carrentals, Dean has held varied roles almost all of which have involved design, development, implementation and management of a range of systems/network infrastructure. He has also held customer facing roles which have included pre/post sales technical consultancy; product support; training and strategy. All in all Dean is a useful person to have on the team!

Robert Vaughn-Jones – Web Developer

Bobby is the longest standing member of the team joining the company back in May 2005. He started his working career with us as a Systems Analyst and has worked his way up the ladder to become one of our web developers and designers. He is involved in the design changes and development we have on site and adds great value to the company with his years of knowledge and experience of Carrentals from its early days.

He enjoys working as part of our team and loves the challenges the job brings.

Paul Fenrich – Web Developer/Designer

Paul joined Carrentals back in June 2007, starting off as a systems analyst and moving on to site development and design; he and Bobby work closely together on the day to day design and development tasks of the website. Recently Paul has become our social media developer and designer, working closely with our marketing team to keep the social media aspect of the company up to date.

Chasey Davies-Wrigley – Data Expert/Web Developer

Chasey started working for Carrentals back in September 2008 and her role within the company includes but is not limited to – development of new supplier feed and integrating into the website; producing project plans, risk reports, requirements specifications, design specifications and test plans; interpreting technical specifications from third party organisations, breaking tasks down and explaining requirements to other developers and ensuring reports are created and delivered to our finance department to ensure their smooth running.

Dave Gardner – Web and Graphics Designer

One of the newest members of our team, Dave joined us in January 2012. He is working his way through new site designs and implementation and works as part of our overall technical department.

Before joining us Dave worked as a software developer for 8 years in various companies including ITV and as a development team leader at a Cardiff-based Law Firm.

Damian Hemsworth – Finance Manager

Damian served in the armed forces for a decade before deciding on a career change due to the strains army life placed on his family.

He stumbled into accountancy whilst browsing courses at the local technical college and quickly realised he had a passion for numbers. Qualifying in 2008, Damian has worked in various service industries from Management consultancy to housing, he joined Carrentals in February 2010 as the finance manager and manages the financial and management accounts.

Helen Young – Marketing, Affiliate & Customer Support Manager

Helen has been with Carrentals since April 2008. She is responsible for the day to day running and support of the affiliate programme; social media strategy and execution; email marketing, including managing the set up and delivery of e-letters and news content management, all of which ensure that Carrentals keep up to date with current marketing requirements within the industry.

Helen also manages our customer support section where she works closely with our main customer support staff, Katy and Briony to ensure the smooth running of our customer services.

In June 2011 Helen obtained her PRINCE2 Practitioner qualification.

Kim Oldfield – Travel Guide editor & Systems Analyst

Kim began working for Carrentals.co.uk in 2006, following her studies at Glamorgan University where she obtained a Bsc in Physical Geography. For the best part of the year she focused on mapping our ‘Master Locations’ list, making sure your booking was in the right place! During 2008 she left Carrentals for a year to gain experience as an Environmental Assistant with a Conservation group at Qinetiq, an MoD based site. Following that year’s experience she decided to return to Carrentals as she realised how much she enjoyed the work and how she wanted to improve her website development skills.

Her major role in the company has been the improvement of our travel guides through her passion,travel knowledge and experience.

Katy Davies – Head of Customer Support

Katy joined Carrentals in October 2007 working in the customer support section. She works closely with all our suppliers ensuring that any issues customers may have are dealt with quickly and customers are kept informed of all issues that may arise.

She regularly attends Customer Care training courses to ensure she stays ahead of new developments.
Before joining us Katy worked as a receptionist at PDS Financial Services.

Briony Jones – Blog Editor and Customer Support Assistant.

Briony first of all joined the ASAP Ventures team in February 2010 working for our sister site DiscountVouchers.co.uk as a systems analyst. She then moved over to join our Carrentals team in January 2012 and is now in charge of our Blog section, managing the blog writers, editing and loading of the blogs and talking with suppliers to secure offers and promotions for our Carrentals customers.
She also manages our forum, assists Katy with customer support and assists Helen with marketing projects.