Top CEOs of Car Rental Companies: Leadership Profiles and the Strategies Shaping Mobility
Car rental isn’t just “cars at the airport” anymore. It’s a fast-moving mobility business where leadership shows up in the basics: fleet utilization, depreciation control, digital conversion, customer experience, and the ability to pivot when travel demand, vehicle supply, used-car pricing, and EV economics shift quickly.
That’s why this infographic is useful. It highlights leaders from:
- Global giants (Enterprise Mobility, Hertz, Avis Budget)
- European powerhouses (SIXT, Europcar Mobility Group)
- High-growth regional champions (Localiza in Brazil; Budget Saudi and Lumi in Saudi Arabia)
- Differentiated models (Green Motion’s franchise-only expansion)
As the industry becomes more digital and mobility services continue to evolve, technology also plays a key role in helping operators manage fleets, automate bookings, and launch new rental models. Solutions like those from World Wide Mobility help companies build and scale modern rental platforms.
👉 Learn more about our rental solutions: Link
CEO Profiles in Detail
Alexander Sixt — SIXT
Current role: Co-CEO of SIXT SE (jointly with Konstantin Sixt). Appointed effective June 17, 2021, after serving on the Managing Board since 2015.
Career highlights: Joined the company in 2009 and rose through leadership roles as SIXT expanded across Europe and into the U.S.
Leadership style: Messaging emphasizes profitable growth, disciplined expansion, and operational realism, especially around EV constraints.
Recent initiatives: SIXT reported €4.283B revenue (2025) and a fleet of 365,900 vehicles (including franchise). It also positioned SIXT ONE as a loyalty extension of its broader “premium mobility platform” strategy.
Sebastián Birkel — Europcar Mobility Group
Current role: Group CEO effective May 1, 2025.
Career highlights: Europcar framed Birkel as a turnaround operator: five years in SIXT North America leadership (more than three as CEO), plus roles in vehicle purchasing and controlling. Later CEO of profection Group and earlier restructuring work at Roland Berger.
Leadership style: Operational discipline built for multi-year transformation under “headwinds.”
Recent initiatives: Europcar describes a fleet of 280,000+ vehicles and a network in 130+ countries.
Chrissy Taylor — Enterprise Mobility
Current role: President & CEO since 2020 (after EVP & COO; then President & COO).
Career highlights: Enterprise notes she held 17 roles before becoming CEO—an operator-built path. Enterprise also stands out for unusually stable governance (very few CEOs over decades).
Leadership style: Long-term reinvestment mindset with strong emphasis on service culture and operating discipline.
Recent initiatives: Enterprise Mobility reports $39B revenue (FY2025) and a 2.4M+ vehicle global fleet, with 9,500+ branches across 90+ countries/territories. The “Enterprise Mobility” brand alignment reflects expansion beyond rental into fleet management, subscription, carsharing, and tech services.
Gil West — Hertz
Current role: CEO effective April 1, 2024, joining the board at the same time.
Career highlights: Operations-heavy background: former COO at Delta Air Lines and COO at GM’s Cruise.
Leadership style: Early communications emphasize measurable operational milestones and tighter unit economics.
Recent initiatives: Hertz has reinforced a fleet lifecycle playbook (“Buy Right / Hold Right / Sell Right”). In updates, it highlighted “Hold Right” progress (keeping the core fleet young) and “Sell Right” via stronger retail vehicle disposition—an important reminder that rental profitability depends heavily on fleet lifecycle execution, not just reservations.
Brian Choi — Avis Budget Group
Current role: CEO since July 2025 after serving as Chief Transformation Officer and previously CFO.
Career highlights: Background includes a long investing career (SRS Investment Management, including partner) and leveraged finance early on. Inside Avis, he’s held both finance and transformation roles.
Leadership style: Value creation through cost discipline, modernization, and operating leverage, especially in a margin-volatile business.
Recent initiatives: Avis reported $11.652B revenue (2025). Fleet complexity is reflected in an average quarterly fleet ranging from ~631,000 (Q1) to ~746,000 (Q3). The company also emphasizes tighter integration between rental operations and vehicle remarketing (including retail/online disposition), reinforcing that rental and resale is one combined strategy.
Fawaz Danish — Budget Saudi Arabia
Current role: President & Group CEO since January 18, 2002 (exceptionally long tenure).
Career highlights: Seen across cycles; growth tied to fleet expansion, utilization improvement, and scaling long- and short-term rental segments.
Leadership style: Pragmatic modernization with operational value at the center (utilization, returns per car, branch footprint).
Recent initiatives: FY2024 revenue was SAR 1.97B, up sharply YoY, driven by fleet growth and acquisition contribution. Budget Saudi acquired 100% of AutoWorld (via a subsidiary structure and issuance of new shares), a consolidation move to deepen long-term leasing capability.
Erik Devesa — Centauro
Current role: The infographic notes “until 2024.” Reporting indicates he stepped down at the end of 2023 and remained connected as an independent director.
Career highlights: Centauro scaled strongly in Southern European leisure markets and operates within the Mutua Madrileña Group ecosystem.
Leadership style: Less executive branding, more operational standardization across multi-country leisure corridors. Centauro highlights rapid fleet renewal cycles through manufacturer partnerships.
Recent initiatives: Centauro positions fleet scale at 40,000+ vehicles, spanning multiple segments (family cars, SUVs, hybrids, vans) to match seasonality and leisure demand patterns.
Martin Ward — ZIGUP
Current role: CEO of ZIGUP plc, an integrated mobility solutions platform spanning rental, fleet management, and claims/accident mobility services.
Career highlights: FY2025 communications emphasize market share gains, improving service scores, and tech-enabled offerings across divisions, more “mobility systems CEO” than traditional retail rental.
Leadership style: KPI-focused operational cadence: simplify journeys, improve service metrics, scale self-service.
Recent initiatives: ZIGUP reported £1,812.6M revenue (FY ended 30 April 2025), a 131,600-vehicle fleet, and support for 1M+ managed vehicles, with 180+ branches across the UK, Ireland, and Spain. Highlights include a “Customer First” program and EV-related support services.
Azfar Shakeel — Lumi Rental
Current role: CEO since February 18, 2016.
Career highlights: 26+ years across major Middle East FMCG and conglomerates (including roles linked to P&G/Gillette, Coca-Cola, and Hanco Holding).
Leadership style: Customer-centric growth tied to Saudi tourism acceleration, modernization, and greener mobility options.
Recent initiatives: Lumi reported SAR 1,550M revenue (FY2024) and a fleet of 34.1K vehicles. It positions itself as diversified across corporate/government leasing, digital rentals (41 branches), and used car sales—an integrated model built around lifecycle economics.
Othman Ktiri — OK Mobility
Current role: Founder and CEO / Executive President of OK Mobility Group. Founded the business in 2005 and scaled into a group structure.
Career highlights: 2024 performance: €551M turnover and €58M EBITDA, operating across 18 countries with 80+ “OK Stores.”
Leadership style: Founder energy paired with professionalization; also invests in culture (including a notable employee bonus initiative).
Recent initiatives: OK Mobility emphasizes efficient growth, cost optimization, and consolidation, plus EV investment: €17M to add 500 EVs, supported by a fleet electrification program and grant funding.
Richard Lowden — Green Motion
Current role: Founder/CEO of Green Motion International and President of U-Save International (per industry speaker bio).
Career highlights: Green Motion is structurally differentiated: 100% franchise model, eco-focused identity launched in 2007, and large international footprint (reported as 70+ countries and 700+ locations in some profiles).
Leadership style: Expansion-first founder approach; priorities typically include brand governance and franchisee economics.
Recent initiatives: Growth narrative emphasizes expanding into new markets while increasing density within markets, plus the U-Save acquisition and ongoing integration into a broader franchise growth strategy.
Bruno Lasansky — Localiza
Current role: CEO of Localiza Rent a Car S.A. (Localiza&Co).
Career highlights: Strategy-to-operator path: industrial engineering + MBA, former Bain partner, began with Localiza as a consultant, joined executive team in 2016, led Car Rental, then COO, then CEO.
Leadership style: Mix of operational excellence and product/tech agenda: customer experience, digital pickup, productivity via modern tooling and cloud migration.
Recent initiatives: Localiza reported R$37.3B net revenue (2024) and a year-end fleet of 669,362 cars. It highlighted digital pickup (available in 192 branches, used by 16% of customers in 2024) and priorities around fleet renewal, used-car sales, pricing, and productivity.
What This Graphic Really Tells Us
Beyond the names, the infographic quietly shows how the industry is splitting into three leadership arenas:
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Global scale operators Enterprise, Hertz, Avis Budget. Their advantage is purchasing power, distribution, and operational systems at massive scale.
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Regional champions Localiza, Budget Saudi, Lumi, Centauro. These leaders win by mastering local demand drivers (tourism, corporate/government, infrastructure booms) and executing fleet cycles better than anyone else.
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Specialized mobility platforms ZIGUP and Green Motion show two very different paths: ZIGUP: integrated B2B mobility across the vehicle lifecycle. Green Motion: franchise-only international expansion with an eco positioning layer.
Powering Car Rental with World Wide Mobility
As the car rental industry evolves, operators need better technology to manage fleets, digitize booking processes, and launch new mobility services.
World Wide Mobility provides a modular mobility platform that enables companies to operate fully digital rental services, vehicle subscriptions, and car-sharing solutions from a single system. The platform integrates software, hardware, and mobile applications to help operators manage fleets, automate operations, and deliver seamless digital rental experiences.
Learn more about our rental solutions: Link