Franchise Services of North America Inc. (FSNA) announced on May 3 the appointment of William Plamondon as president of Advantage Rent A Car.

Plamondon will lead the company's integration of Advantage into FSNA's operations. Advantage became a subsidiary of FSNA after Hertz divested of Advantage after Hertz’s acquisition of Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group.

Plamondon began his career in franchise development at Budget Rent A Car in 1978. As vice president of franchised operations, Plamondon built Budget Rent A Car's functions in field operations, training and development, and acquisition and refranchising. From 1989 to 1992, he served as the executive vice president of sales and marketing and later as the executive vice president, North America.

At the direction of Ford Motor Co. and Budget's board of directors, Plamondon was named president of Budget Rent A Car in 1992 and then appointed chief executive officer the following year. In this role, Plamondon was responsible for acquisitions integration, organizational development and cost restructuring at the $2.5 billion company.

Following his years at Budget, Plamondon served as president and chief executive officer of ANC Rental Corp., the parent company of Alamo Rent A Car and National Car Rental.

"I am so pleased to be joining FSNA at this critical juncture,” said Plamondon. “I have been impressed with the current Advantage team and look forward to putting my experience to work toward building another great brand in car rental."

FSNA also announced the appointments of David Mitchell as chief financial officer of Advantage and Brian Cicco as vice president of human resources at Advantage.

Commenting on the appointment of the new officers and senior management team of Advantage, Thomas P. McDonnell, III, the Company's chief executive officer and chairman said, "We are pleased to welcome Bill, David and Brian to the FSNA team. In particular, Bill's years of experience in the car rental space will be invaluable as we continue the development and execution of our plans to build the fourth largest car rental company in North America."