GM names marketing veteran as new Korea CEO

Hector Villarreal, the new CEO of GM Korea [GM KOREA]

General Motors (GM) named Hector Villarreal as the new CEO of GM Korea.

"Hector has a proven track record in driving commercial growth and developing a multi-brand strategy in GM Mexico together with abundant leadership roles globally, which will be an asset as we grow our export business and domestic market share in Korea," Shilpan Amin, GM International president, said in a statement.

Villarreal will begin his role on Aug. 1, the company said.

Villarreal, who studied mechanical engineering at Tecnológico de Monterrey, joined GM Mexico in 1990 as the manufacturing project engineer and served as the vice president of planning and program management at GM Korea.

In 2015, he served as the president of GM Operations in Uzbekistan, and after two years, he moved the position to the managing director of GM Russia. He then served as the president of GM Southeast Asia for two years since 2019.

Since September 2020, Villarreal has been serving as the vice president of vehicle sales, service and marketing of GM Mexico and is responsible for commercial strategy of four brands: Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac. He has also been responsible for the leadership of the dealership network in Mexico and 14 countries in Central America and the Caribbean.

"The [Korean] team has been making great progress turning around the business amid the pandemic and uncertainty of the automotive industry around the globe," Villarreal said. "The recent success of the Chevrolet Trax Crossover is now a global benchmark for GM, and I am very confident we can continue this success by opening a new chapter for the business in GM Korea."

Roberto Rempel, the current CEO of GM Korea, will retire after almost 40 years of service to GM.

BY SARAH CHEA [chea.sarah@joongang.co.kr]