Bryan Rich joins SmartEquip board

US rental veteran Bryan Rich has joined SmartEquip as executive chairman. Mr Rich has a 30 year career in rental during which he held senior positions at companies including Logan Equipment, NationsRent and Sunbelt Rentals.

Logan Equipment and NationsRent were early adopters of SmartEquip's technology and Mr Rich is a significant shareholder in SmartEquip. Over the past year he has served as a special advisor to SmartEquip's board.

Mr Rich said SmartEquip had created a unique position for itself in the rental industry, but that "the company's need for a disciplined operational growth strategy has increased signicantly, especially during the most recent world financial meltdown.

"During this period SmartEquip customers, as well as the entire industry, have been challenged with finding meaningful gains in efficiency and ways to do more with less, and a growing number of industry leaders have turned to SmartEquip to help them through these challenges.

"My mission is to lead and support the SmartEquip team to deliver to its customers a highly usable, timely and stable product that could ultimately, and in short order, make the SmartEquip Network the ‘Industry Standard Procurement & Fleet Efficiency Platform' for all to measure against."

Mr Rich said SmartEquip would remain focused on the equipment rental sector but have a "mindful eye on neighbouring industry verticals for the future."

Alexander Schuessler, SmartEquip's chief executive officer, said; "It is a privilege to further deepen the excellent working relationship Bryan and I have built over the past decade, and both of us look forward to the next stage of our company's lifecycle."