Hyundai Motor names new CEO for US operations

Seoul, July 29: Hyundai Motor, South Korea's biggest carmaker, said on Friday it has named a new chief executive for its US operations amid the prolonged chip shortage. Hyundai has promoted Randy Parker to be CEO of Hyundai Motor America, effective from August 1.

He will be in charge of Hyundai's commercial automotive operations in the US market, the company said in a statement. Parker will report to Jose Munoz, president and CEO of Hyundai Motor America, reports Yonhap news agency.

"Randy is the perfect person to continue Hyundai's recent successes in sales, market share and growth in the US," Munoz said.

In May 2019, Parker was named vice president of national sales at Hyundai Motor America and was promoted to senior vice president in February 2021.

During his tenure, Hyundai became one of the fastest growing mainstream brands in the world's most important automobile market, achieving record retail sales in 2021.

Hyundai's U.S. sales jumped 19 per cent to 738,081 vehicles in 2021 from 622,269 units a year earlier.

From January to June, however, its U.S. sales fell 16 per cent to 343,867 autos from 407,135 during the same period of last year due to the prolonged pandemic and chip shortages.