The Hyundai North America CEO will now oversee luxury brand Genesis as well.
Becoming the CEO of a major automotive company is a big deal, but being CEO of two at the same time is next-level. It certainly won’t be an easy feat, but Randy Parker has just signed up for it. While retaining his role as the CEO of Hyundai Motor North America, Parker has also been named as the CEO of Genesis North America.
That means in addition to overseeing Hyundai’s offerings like the Tuscon, Santa Fe, and new Ioniq 9 three-row electric SUV, Parker will also guide luxury brand Genesis as well. On paper it may not seem like a massive leap, but you have to understand that despite Genesis technically being a sub-brand of Hyundai, it’s treated as an entirely different beast. For Parker it may be like running two separate companies at the same time, which will be quite the challenge.
Hyundai isn’t the same brand it was 20 or even 10 years ago; it has mostly shrugged off its previous brand perception as cheap, shoddily made vehicles to strong contenders for car shoppers across multiple segments. Can Parker help Genesis grow its brand cachet to help it become more of a threat to legacy luxury competitors like Mercedes-Benz and BMW? We’ll be watching closely to find out.
In case you missed it, we featured Parker as part of MotorTrend’s celebration of Black History Month earlier this year. Parker discussed the path that led him to become one of the first African American automotive CEOs in history.
