Car plant director leaves Halewood for role in Europe.

Byline: BUSINESS EDITOR: BILL GLEESON

THE top manager at Jaguar Land Rover's Halewood plant is leaving next month.

Thomas Klein, the plant's operations director, returns to work for Ford in Europe at the end of January. Ford sold JLR to India's Tata Motors in a pounds 1bn-plus deal this year. Mr Klein, who has worked for Ford for more than 20 years, joined Halewood in 2005 and oversaw the successful launch of the Land Rover Freelander 2 and the Jaguar X-Type.

He will be succeeded by Michael Straughan, who is returning to Halewood after more than two years as operations director at commercial van builder LDV's Birmingham plant. Mr Straughan worked at Halewood, which employs more than 2,000 people, from 2004 to 2006, to help prepare the plant for the Freelander 2 launch. He has also held senior roles at Nissan and was production director at Volvo's Uddevalla plant, in Sweden.

CAPTION(S):

Tata chairman Ratan Tata at Halewood, with plant operations director Thomas Klein - now departing