The Cobalt Group, a provider of e-business software and services to the automotive retail market, announced that it has named Mike Martinez to the company's newly created position of vice president of sales and marketing. Martinez, who has led Cobalt's marketing efforts since joining the company in 2000, will work to strengthen Cobalt's market position in his new role. Martinez will report to Terry Smail, Cobalt's executive vice president and chief customer officer.

"Mike has been a driving force behind Cobalt's growth in marketing and product management, including the recent acquisition of Cowboy Corp and the highly successful launch of Cobalt's Nitra platform," said Terry Smail. "Mike will have a major role in building Cobalt's revenues and in expanding the expertise and professionalism of its field sales force."

Martinez has led Cobalt's marketing communications, product management and channel marketing teams and served as general manager of Cobalt's CRM (customer relationship management) business. In his new position he will continue to direct Cobalt's marketing efforts as well as sales of Cobalt's CRM and online retailing products.

Prior to joining Cobalt, Martinez was a general manager of CRM marketing for Lucent Technologies, where he led all marketing efforts for the company's customer relationship management and e-business software applications. He also served in several roles in his seven years of product marketing at Microsoft Corporation. His accomplishments include implementing multiple marketing and promotional strategies and helping increase revenue and gross margins for a number of product lines at Microsoft.

Martinez holds a master's degree in business (MBA) from Pacific Lutheran University and a bachelor's degree in business management from Western Washington University.

About The Cobalt Group

The Cobalt Group (www.cobaltgroup.com) works exclusively in the automotive retail market developing integrated e-business programs that help manufacturers and dealers increase their profits and operational efficiencies. Cobalt offers a broad range of products and services, including enterprise software; customer relationship management (CRM) applications; e-commerce applications; the industry's largest OEM parts locating and marketing service; and e-business best practices training and consultation. Cobalt's network includes 12,000 franchised dealers and more than 70 of the 100 largest dealer groups. Cobalt says it is the only software technology provider ever endorsed by 17 manufacturers and the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA).