Car Stock Exchange
Auto Executives
August 1, 2008
The 2009 Kia Borrego has already started arriving in showrooms and this week Kia Motors America announced the hiring of a new Vice President of Marketing - Michael Sprague - who will help sell them. After a six month search to replace Ian Beavis who was ousted with CEO Len Hunt in February, Sprague, like Beavis, comes to Kia from Lincoln Mercury where he was group marketing manager. Sprague officially starts at the Irvine headquarters on August 11th.
During 12 years at Ford, Sprague was also Ford's Corporate Brand Strategy Manager and Cross Brand Product Marketing Manager and before that General Manager of Global Brand Marketing at Mazda Motor Corporation, Japan. His other Ford positions were: Advanced Product Strategy Manager, Mercury Cougar Brand Manager, Regional Marketing Manager for Lincoln Mercury, District Sales Manager at Lincoln Mercury and Cross Vehicle Line Manager - Export Operations at Ford.
The Borrego, which trades on the Car Stock Exchange, starts at $26,245 and comes in 7 trim levels with two engines choices: a 276 horsepower 3.8 liter V6 and a 337 horsepower 4.6 liter V8.
Continue reading...
- Permalink | Comments (0)
- Posted by: Richard Saxton August 1, 2008, 4:00 AM
- Categories: Auto Executives
July 21, 2008
Len Hunt who was ousted from Kia Motors America in February, just two months after being promoted from COO to CEO, recently landed with Gallup Consulting. Hunt departed Kia on the eve of NADA apparently over a Kia TV commercial that led to a "who's the boss?" debate with Byung Mo Ahn just five days after Ahn took the newly created position of chairman and group CEO of Kia Motors America and Kia Motors Manufacturing Georgia.
Hunt, a veteran auto industry executive who has worked with Jaguar, Audi, Volkswagen and Kia has joined Gallup in as a Partner based in Irvine, California and will be responsible for managing existing client relationships as well as developing new relationships in the automotive and non-automotive fields.
Steve Wilhite resigned as Hyundai Motor America's chief operating officer in September 2007 apparently over not achieving almost unrealistic sales targets. Many thought Wilhite would wind up back at Ford as marketing chief, a job that Toyota's Jim Farley got a few weeks later in the Fall of '07. Wilhite instead takes the newly created position of President at Jumpstart Automotive Media, an automotive publisher rep firm, wholly-owned by Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. Wilhite, a veteran auto marketer who has worked with Volkswagen, Nissan and Hyundai, is in San Francisco nearby his alma maters Berkeley and Stanford. Wilhite replaced Bob Cosmai at Hyundai, who left in January 2006, apparently as an executive ego clash casualty.
As of now, it looks like neither Hyundai nor Kia have replaced Wilhite or Hunt.
Written by CSX Contributor Richard Saxton.
- Permalink | Comments (0)
-
- Posted by: Richard Saxton July 21, 2008, 4:00 AM
- Categories: Auto Executives
July 18, 2008
John Middlebrook, General Motors global sales and marketing chief officially retired on July 1st after 49 years with GM and on July 15, the same day as the company announced a $15 billion dollar cost saving plan, Middlebrook celebrated his departure with about two hundred people paying tribute to their friend. I was honored to be one of them.
Among the half dozen people who recounted John's career at the GM Heritage Center in Detroit was Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner who reminded us that "gas was 31 cents a gallon in 1959 when Middlebrook started." Wagoner said that Middlebrook "knows more about marketing than anyone I've ever met" calling him a man with passion with the ability to relate to people and built a network of admirers around the world while knitting together GM's Global Marketing team.
Continue reading...
- Permalink | Comments (0)
-
- Posted by: Richard Saxton July 18, 2008, 4:00 AM
- Categories: Auto Executives
June 9, 2008
Jeff Conrad has swapped jobs with Steve Center becoming Vice President of the Acura Division. Conrad joined Honda in 1982 as a district sales manager and has held positions including Mid-Atlantic zone sales manager, Acura national sales manager from 1987 to 1993 and the western region manager from 1993 to 1994. In December of 1994, Conrad was promoted to assistant vice president of National Marketing and then to assistant vice president of Dealer Relations in 1999.
Steve Center moves to Conrad's last assignment of vice president, Advertising and Public Relations of the Automobile Operations Division for American Honda...
Continue reading...
- Permalink | Comments (0)
-
- Posted by: Richard Saxton June 9, 2008, 10:26 PM
- Categories: Auto Executives
April 16, 2008
Seven of the 36 vehicles that trade on the Car Stock Exchange are from General Motors so its significant to sales that GM is aligning its U.S. marketing and field
operations into four retail channels with three GM veterans and one new addition in charge, effective June 1:
- Ed Peper, 46, is appointed North America Vice President, Chevrolet Channel.
- Susan Docherty, 45, is appointed North America Vice President, Buick-Pontiac-GMC Channel.
- Mark McNabb, 47, is appointed North America Vice President, Premium Channel - Cadillac, Hummer & Saab...
Continue reading...
- Permalink | Comments (0)
-
- Posted by: Richard Saxton April 16, 2008, 9:30 PM
- Categories: Auto Executives
March 13, 2008
It's been almost two years since Nissan North America moved its headquarters from Gardena, California, to Nashville, Tennessee. Word is that maybe 400 of the nearly 1,300 employees elected to leave Southern California in June 2006 and many of those have resigned since. Nissan lost about a dozen of its top executives on the headquarter re-location, including its then-chief of sales and marketing, Jed Connelly, who chose to retire in July 2006. Brad Bradshaw took over Connelly's spot and a year later left...
Continue reading...
- Permalink | Comments (0)
-
- Posted by: Richard Saxton March 13, 2008, 4:49 PM
- Categories: Auto Executives
March 11, 2008
By the end of the year Volvo Cars of North America will relocate its headquarters from Irvine, California, back to Rockleigh, New Jersey, where it currently has its customer care, parts and service operations. Volvo's U.S. headquarters opened in 1956 in Newark, New Jersey, then moved to Englewood Cliffs before settling in Rockleigh in 1964.
Doug Speck, a 25-year Ford Motor Company veteran, will become president and CEO replacing Anne Belec effective immediately. The 48 year old Speck joined VCNA in July 2006 and was named executive vice president of Sales and Marketing in March 2007...
Continue reading...
- Permalink | Comments (0)
-
- Posted by: Richard Saxton March 11, 2008, 7:05 AM
- Categories: Auto Executives
February 12, 2008
The buzz at NADA parties in San Francisco on Saturday Feb. 9th was that Len Hunt was out at Kia Motors America (KMA) after just over two years as the highest ranking non-Korean executive at the automaker and just 3 months after being elevated to President and CEO of KMA. Not a huge surprise because the Korean car companies have been a revolving door for U.S. executives over the past few years...
Continue reading...
- Permalink | Comments (0)
-
- Posted by: Richard Saxton February 12, 2008, 9:48 AM
- Categories: Auto Executives
January 26, 2008
smart fortwo, made by Mercedes-Benz Cars in France, measures 8.8-feet long by 5.1-feet wide and averages 33 miles per gallon in city traffic and 41 on the highway. 30,000 U.S. buyers put their names on the smart list to take delivery starting in mid-January. Smart USA, a wholly owned subsidiary of Penske Automotive Group Inc...</sp
Continue reading...
- Permalink | Comments (2)
-
- Posted by: Richard Saxton January 26, 2008, 11:33 PM
- Categories: Auto Executives
December 27, 2007
Hyundai Motor America announced that Jong Eun Kim has been named President and Chief Executive Officer of the Southern California-headquartered company.
Continue reading...
- Permalink | Comments (0)
-
- Posted by: Michelle Krebs December 27, 2007, 11:58 AM
- Categories: Auto Executives
