Dollar chairman retires with replacement named

Thomas Capo is set to step down as chairman of car hire giant Dollar and Richard Neu will replace him.

Neu, who is 52 years of age, was first sworn in as a Dollar director back in February 2006 and is the ex-chief financial officer of Charter One as well as its treasurer and director.

Mr Capo, aged 57, who has been one of the directors at Dollar for 13 years while serving as chairman since the first of October 2003, told the firm he intends to surrender his position from the board at next year’s annual meeting of the company’s shareholders.

Speaking on the news, the company’s CEO, Scott Thompson, told reporters how Tom Capo has been a mainstay at Dollar and that his deep knowledge of both the firm and the car rental industry helped everyone get through some of the most challenging years in their careers. To round his statement off, Thompson wished his former colleague all the best long after he has retired in 2011.

As briefly touched upon by Thompson, Capo’s reign as chairman was unfortunately marked by one of the most turbulent and challenging periods in the company’s history. First of all starting with the slump experienced after 9/11, many numerous mergers stalling at the last minute, and then the credit recession of 2008.

As has been widely reported in the press, rivals Hertz and Avis are currently locked in a battle with one another to overtake Dollar.