Hyundai Motor has reinstated former research and development president Kwon Moon-sik on Monday only three months after he resigned.
According to Reuters, Hyundai also said Oh Suk-geun, head of its design centre, had resigned for “personal reasons”.
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Group chairman Chung Mong-koo, a son of Hyundai’s founder, has been known for abruptly firing executives and rehiring some of them, the news agency noted.
“Chung’s management style is good in that it injects tension into the organisation. But it leads to a lack of consistency and transparency at the global company,” Lee Hang-koo, a senior researcher at state-funded Korea Institute for Industrial Economics & Trade, told Reuters.
Hyundai was among the bottom five scoring brands in the JD Power US vehicle dependability survey released this month.
Hyundai said in a statement: “Given his expertise, experience and leadership skills, we reinstated president Kwon to enhance quality and R&D capability from scratch.”
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By GlobalDataIn November, Hyundai Motor, which has joint R&D operations with Kia Motors, said Kwon and two other R&D executives resigned over a series of quality problems.
Kwon, who formerly served as chief executive at Hyundai’s two auto electronics units, was known as being one of the top aides to Chung’s only son and heir apparent Chung Eui-sun, media reports have said, according to Reuters, He reports to R&D vice chairman Yang Woong-chul.
Kim Hae-jin, who had took over from Kwon in December, returned to his previous post overseeing powertrain development.
Meanwhile, exterior design head Lee Byung-seob was appointed to take over Oh’s position and will report to Peter Schreyer, who was named last year to oversee both Kia and Hyundai designs.
There have been changes at the US units after sales in the key market did not meet expectations, the report added. Kia’s US sales chief Tom Loveless recently left the company while Hyundai said in December that its US chief, John Krafcik, had stepped down after his contract was not renewed.
