Hyundai Motor chair vows more diverse hiring at New Year's event

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Hyundai Motor chair vows more diverse hiring at New Year's event

Published: 06 Jan. 2025, 18:20 Updated: 06 Jan. 2025, 19:20

CHO YONG-JUN
[email protected]

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Euisun Chung on Monday's New Year event held at the Hyundai Motorstudio Goyang in Goyang, Gyeonggi. [CHO YONG-JUN]

Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Euisun Chung expressed a new commitment to managerial diversity at a New Year's event following the appointment of José Muñoz as Hyundai Motor’s first non-Korean CEO.

“We will be building an environment [so] that only skilled personnel can be leaders, regardless of their nationality,” Chung said during Hyundai Motor Group's New Year event at the Hyundai Motorstudio Goyang in Goyang, Gyeonggi.

Muñoz, a U.S. citizen, had previously served as Hyundai Motor's global chief operating officer and CEO of Hyundai and Genesis Motor North America.

Hyundai Motor President and CEO José Muñoz speaks during Monday's New Year event held at the Hyundai Motorstudio Goyang in Goyang, Gyeonggi. [CHO YONG-JUN]

Chung also vowed that Hyundai Motor Group would pursue merit-based promotion, disregarding factors such as “gender, educational backgrounds and years of experience” in the upcoming year.

The issue was one of several the Hyundai chief touched on in his address, including potential responses to a variety of “challenges” the company currently faces.

“A lack of challenges makes us complacent and easygoing, which poses a bigger danger than any external challenges and crises,” he said. “External challenges can, conversely, benefit us. These challenges will be unavoidable; we should not be intimated.”

Hyundai is likely to hit roadblocks this year including a continued global slowdown in EV demand and projected changes to U.S. trade policy.

The Hyundai chief nevertheless asked attendees not to be pessimistic about the company’s future.

“We have always experienced challenges and have managed to overcome such challenges well,” Chung said.

“Words like ‘perfect storm’ should be making us alert, inspire us of our mindset, and not have us fall for pessimism and neglect innovation.”

Muñoz, alongside Hyundai Motor Group Vice Chair Chang Jae-hoon, Hyundai Motor Company President Sung Kim, Kia CEO Song Ho-sung, Hyundai Motor President Song Chang-hyun and other group executives attended to answer questions they'd received in advance from employees. Kim previously worked as a member of the U.S. envoy to North Korea.

From left, Hyundai Motor Group Vice Chair Chang Jae-hoon, Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Euisun Chung and Hyundai Motor President and CEO José Muñoz on Monday's New Year event held at the Hyundai Motorstudio Goyang in Goyang, Gyeonggi. [CHO YONG-JUN]

Both Muñoz and Kim, while admitting that the upcoming Trump administration could provide challenges, said they were “cautiously optimistic” and “ready” for the future. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who has been openly calling U.S. President Joe Biden's push for electric vehicles an “EV mandate,” has indicated his intention to reduce or remove tax credits and subsidies given to customers who purchase EVs and to companies that produce them.

“Our company decided to make a big investment in the North American market during the previous Trump administration, and those investments have come to fruition right now, as the new administration is about to start,” Muñoz told the reporters after the event. The new CEO emphasized that the company had decided to build its new EV-centric plant in Georgia based on “business opportunities” and not “incentives.”

“We are ready for anything,” Kim said. “We need not to speculate.” Vice President Chang added that the company has yet to talk with any members of the upcoming administration.

Hyundai Motor Vice President Sung Kim speaks during Monday's New Year event held at the Hyundai Motorstudio Goyang in Goyang, Gyeonggi. [CHO YONG-JUN]

“There are a lot of variables, so instead of specifically sharing how we will react to the future, [because] we have factories in the U.S. and Mexico, we will be adjusting the model mix and portfolio based on the policies of the Trump administration,” Kia’s CEO said. “The decision of how we should absorb the [possible] tariff, or how the consumers should absorb it, is an important issue.”

“It’s not just an issue for ourselves but for all the automakers.”

Chung, as he celebrates his fifth year at the helm, talked about his achievements and the company's future.

“We have accomplished new growth in our business through technological innovation,” he said.

“We put focus on mobility, so maybe in 50 years’ time, or whenever that may be, we could be thinking of teletransportation.”

BY CHO YONG-JUN [[email protected]]