Pets at Home people director Ryan Cheyne leaves for Rentalcars.com

Cheyne, one of the highest profile people directors in retail, is joining Rentalcars.com, which describes itself as “the world’s biggest car hire booking service”.

He has been with Pets at Home since 2005, when he joined as human resources director.

He was a core member of the team who built up Pets at Home under private equity ownership, alongside Matt Davies who subsequently ran Halfords and who next week becomes Tesco’s UK chief executive. Pets at Home was floated last year.

Cheyne played a pivotal role in creating the retailer’s customer-centric culture, central to which was making it an “amazing place to work” for staff.

The retailer was named the best big company to work for by the Sunday Times in March 2013.

Before joining Pets Cheyne held roles at Argos and Arcadia.

He will be succeeded at Pets at Home by Vicky Hill, who is being promoted to head of people. She has been with the retailer for four years