Former Coates executive takes helm at Australia's Onsite group

Australia's Onsite Rental Group has announced the retirement of its long-serving chief executive officer and co-founder Trevor James. He has been succeeded by Mark Rich, a former senior executive at Coates Hire who more recently has led Onsite's New Zealand business, Hirepool.

Mr James will remain an executive director at Onsite for the next six months - leading growth and strategy and overseeing the transition with Mr Rich - before taking up a longer term role as non-executive director on 1 August 2011.

As CEO since 2007, Mr James has lead Onsite's growth through a combination of organic investment and acquisitions. A past Coates manager himself, he left the company in 1997 to found On Site Industrial Rentals. It was acquired in 2007 by Next Capital and merged with On Site Rentals Australia to create the Onsite Rental Group.

"It has been a very exciting path of growth at Onsite since 2007 and I am proud that we now have the national scale to deliver superior technical solutions across an extensive range of industries and geographies", said Mr James.

"This has not been an easy decision for me to make after such an exciting time at the helm of Onsite, however, I believe now is the appropriate time in the group's growth trajectory to transition to a new CEO."

Mark Rich is a highly experienced equipment rental industry executive with more than 30 years' industry experience. He worked with Coates Hire from 2000-2010, ending his career there as executive general manager.

He then joined Onsite and for 12 months has been leading its Hirepool business. Before joining Coates he worked for Wreckair Hire and Donpra Hire.