He has almost a quarter century of working in IT in the motor retail sector, having started his career as an IT support specialist at Lex Retail Group in 1992.

Notable positions include being head of IT at Arnold Clark, IT director at Peter Vardy and he was most recently innovations director at Jardine Motors Group.

Conal said: “I’m very pleased to be joining Startline at this stage in the company’s development. It has built its proposition into a genuine force in the market place over the last few years.

“My job will be to build on and enhance the IT infrastructure along with a major focus on Startline’s digital strategy to move the company through its next phase of development.”

Startline CEO Paul Burgess added: "Conal’s arrival will allow Startline to realise its ambition of positioning itself as the most forward thinking and technologically advanced lender in the motor finance sector.

“As a business, we continue to grow on a month-by-month basis and are continually revising our IT strategy to take account of this expansion. The investments we plan to make in the next few months and years, especially with the appointment of Conal, will make a genuine difference to our customers.”

Recent Startline investments in IT include the introduction last year of new decision software designed to process a higher percentage of customer applications automatically plus the introduction of e-agreement technology that allows customers to e-sign motor finance agreements.