Thursday 4th June 2009

Mazda Executive Lost In Air France Tragedy

Mazda mourns loss of PR director

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Neil Warrior

Mazda Europe's director of public relations, Neil Warrior, lost his life in Sunday's tragic Air France crash.

Our condolences go out to Neil's friends, family and colleagues. Mazda's own news release on the tragedy is reproduced below.

Mazda Mourns the Loss of Neil Warrior

Leverkusen, 3 June 2009. Mazda Motor Europe has confirmed that Neil Stuart Warrior, Director of Public Relations, was a passenger on Air France flight 447 from Rio to Paris. Mr. Warrior's death has not been officially confirmed, but yesterday parts of the Airbus were recovered in the Atlantic Ocean and it is unlikely that there were any survivors.

"Our entire company is shocked and saddened by this terrible news," said Jeff Guyton, President and CEO of Mazda Motor Europe. "It simply isn't enough to say Neil will be sorely missed. This loss goes deeper than that, because someone like Neil cannot be replaced. He was a warm, kind and fun person who will never be forgotten by those who knew him. Our hearts go out to his father, sister and brother. We want them to know that it was a privilege to have had Neil as our colleague and friend."

Neil Warrior was born on 13 April 1961 in Hillingdon, England, and was university educated. He worked in automotive public relations at the start of his career with jobs at Fiat and Alfa Romeo. When he was just 35, he was appointed Communications Manager at SAP-UK in 1997, and after management jobs in Germany and the USA, was named Director of Marketing and Communications for SAP's European organisation in 2003. He joined Mazda Motor Europe as PR Director in 2007, where he was responsible for product communications. A memorial service for Neil Warrior is planned for Monday 8 June 2009 at 18:00 in Cologne, Germany.

 

[Galsia]

Poor guy. Rest in peace...

[scoobsydub]

Ditto. A big shame. A similar thing happened with VW in the Lockerbie disaster. A PR Employee was travelling to the states to discuss the sale of G60 Golf's, after he was killed in the crash VW didn't put the G60 on sale as a mark of respect.

[Mafioso]

Very sad. RIP.

[adycav]

A sad end to an accomplished and promising career.

RIP.

[scoobsydub]

Has anyone else noticed a rather concerning number of plane/helicopter crashes over the last year or so.

[traffman]

My condolences to his immediate family and friends.

Rest in Peace.

[croyde]

He was born a year before me in the same place, I wonder if I ever bumped into him as a kid.

So sad and we'll probably never know what happened.

RIP

[D4 ALPINA]

Totally shocked

I met Neil at least once at a Mazda European press launch.

My thoughts go out to his family, friends and colleagues.

[Graham]

sad news, I also see its been reported that the stuff recovered from the sea is not the wreckage from the plane, so so far no sign of it at all or what happened.

[Stever]

Complete shock to hear this.

Neil was a client of mine and a top bloke in all respects. A real pleasure to have known him, very sad for his family, my sincere condolences to them.