The appointment sees Thomas, who takes up his post in January, return to the UK after a two-year stint as managing director of Emap Australia, where he is credited with overseeing "unprecedented growth over more than 20 titles".
He replaces Malcolm Gough, who has moved up to the post of division managing director of Emap's business to business publishing arm Emap Communications.
Thomas joined Emap in 1984 as a journalist and rose through the ranks to become editor of Empire. He switched to the publishing side of the business and moved up to become managing director of Emap Metro and later managing director of FHM and FHM International.
Paul Keenan, chief executive of Emap Consumer Media, said: "Philip has been hugely successful in developing Emap's presence in Australia and leaves behind a group in great shape. Emap Automotive aspires to be one of the world's biggest and best publishers of car and bike media and I am confident with Philip's vision and experience we will achieve that."
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