A LEADING figure in the motor industry for almost 30 years has been appointed Vice Lord-Lieutenant of County Durham

Lord Lieutenant Sir Paul Nicholson appointed Alasdair MacConachie as his right hand man in the largely ceremonial role following the retirement of Kit Bartram.

Mr Bartram, Vice Lord-Lieutenant for five years, now becomes an Honorary Deputy Lieutenant.

India-born, the son of a former Gurkha Rifles officer, Mr MacConachie was brought up on a farm and educated in Zimbabwe.

He followed his father into the Army, serving with the 1st Battalion Middlesex Regiment and the School of Infantry before beginning a career in the finance, sales and marketing divisions of the motor industry in 1973.

Mr MacConachie managed Ford Motor Credit Company's Home Counties operation and later took charge in the North of England and Scotland, before becoming commercial vehicles sales director for Vauxhall dealers Sherwoods in 1991.

He assumed control of the company in 1983, overseeing an annual turnover increase from £6m to £30m.

Married in 1972, his first wife, Mary, died 13 years ago. He has two sons, Simon and James, from that marriage, and a grandson, James junior.

He subsequently re-married, Val, who has two children, Philip and Janet, and three grandchildren.

Mr MacConachie, 56, has been a Deputy Lieutenant of County Durham since 1992.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, chairman of Darlington and District Hospice and Darlington College of Technology and has served as president of the Friends of Darlington Memorial Hospital, director of Tees Valley Partnership and a member of All Saints Church Parochial Church Council.