US car repair business Crash Champions has hired Seth Ingall as its new legal head, replacing general counsel Paul Ruiter.

Ingall joins after 38 years at US auto insurance giant GEICO, having announced his departure back in March. At Crash Champions he will serve as chief legal officer, assuming all GC duties and overseeing the company’s in-house legal team.

Chicago-based Crash Champions operates more than 650 collision repair centres across the US.

Matt Ebert, Crash Champions founder and CEO, said: “We are proud to welcome Mr. Ingall to the executive leadership team and look forward to the value he will bring as we continue to execute our mission and vision to build the industry’s premier collision repair organisation.”

Ingall spent just shy of four decades at GEICO, the past seven of them as CLO. He originally joined the company while still at college in 1986, working his way up to chief claims officer and then CLO.

He said: “The historic growth and evolution of Crash Champions into an industry-leading collision repair organisation is well documented, and it’s an honour to join the team. I look forward to working alongside Matt and the executive leadership team as we continue delivering a premier collision repair experience to our customers and carrier partners.”

Ruiter, meantime, exits Crash Champions after four years, just under two of them as GC. He originally joined as chief human resources officer in 2020 from The Boyd Group and Gerber Collision & Glass, where he also headed up human resources. He started his career in private practice at Letson Griffith Woodall Lavelle & Rosenberg before moving to True2Form Collision Repair, where he worked for more than a decade as a corporate counsel and human resources director.

At GEICO, Ingall was replaced by Wells Fargo’s deputy GC Tangela Richter, a seasoned financial services in-house counsel whose career has also included stints at American Express, Lending Club and Capital One and at the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

In other automotive-related moves, in June General Motors hired Grant Dixon as its new CLO from video games business Activision Blizzard, replacing Craig Glidden who is now focusing on General Motor’s self-driving vehicle subsidiary Cruise.