Luc Donckerwolke, president and chief creative officer of Hyundai Motor Group / Courtesy of Hyundai Motor Group

By Baek Byung-yeul

Hyundai Motor Group is accelerating its drive to become a leader in the future mobility industry, which combines eco-friendly energy-powered hardware with software.

The Korean automotive giant announced its annual reshuffle of top executives on Wednesday, the biggest change of which was launching a new unit called the Global Strategy Office (GSO), which will serve as a control tower for managing its future strategies, including its future mobility business.

The office will be in charge of setting up strategic directions from the perspective of software, hardware and mobility services; collaboration with inside and outside organizations; and commercialization verification of new businesses, according to the group.

In addition, the group said that the newly established organization will have a decision-making body consisting of experts in each field for the timely and consistent implantation of strategies. The group added that further details on the GSO will be announced before the end of the year.

Besides launching the GSO, Hyundai Motor Group conducted a relatively minor annual reshuffle of executives compared to 2021 when it carried out one of its largest.

Lee Kyoo-bok, CEO of Hyundai Glovis / Courtesy of Hyundai Motor Group

The automotive group elaborated that this year's reshuffle is focused on strengthening its ability to respond to crises in preparation for prolonged uncertainties in the global business environment.

"The reshuffle was conducted to draw up next year's management plans and prepare for a stable management environment," a spokesman of the group said. "The group plans to continue its performance-based personnel reshuffle in December as well."

Specifically, Luc Donckerwolke, executive vice president and chief creative officer (CCO) of the group, was promoted to president in recognition of his setting up the brand identities and directions of Hyundai Motor, Kia and Genesis.

"President and CCO Donckerwolke will continue to strengthen the identities of each of the group's mobility brands ― Hyundai Motor, Kia and Genesis ― through leading the group's advance design and concept model design," the group said.

"I am very honored by this new responsibility," Donckerwolke said. "I would like to thank the group for the trust it has shown in me, and I recognize the Hyundai, Kia and Genesis design teams for their consistently outstanding performance. We have together challenged the status quo and we will continue to promote a creative, challenging and positive attitude within our group."

The group also appointed Lee Kyoo-bok, senior vice president of Hyundai Motor, as executive vice president and CEO of Hyundai Glovis, a logistics company of the group. Lee has diverse experience in Hyundai's global sales and finance roles, including in his role as chief finance officer at Hyundai Motor Brazil.