Automotive Outsider Takes Reins at GM Korea

James Woo Kim, an executive with no automotive background when he was hired as the president and chief operating officer of GM Korea last June, has been catapulted into the top executive slot as president and CEO of the company.

Kim replaces Sergio Rocha, who has been named chairman of the GM Korea board of directors with additional special interest for GM Uzbekistan operations.

Kim is a popular, highly social individual with a Harvard MBA, but his management experience has been outside the automotive industry.

Before joining GM Korea he was CEO of Microsoft Korea for five years, following his tenure as CEO of Yahoo Korea. He is widely known in business circles, particularly in Seoul, where he is the chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea.

Kim will report to Rocha and the rest of the board of directors, but without question has full rein and authority GM Korea.

Many analysts expected Kim was hired to succeed Rocha as CEO, who held the top post for three years. Rocha joined GM Korea in March 2012 after serving as president and managing director of GM Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay.

A mechanical and industrial engineer, Rocha joined GM do Brasil in 1979 as a product engineer and rose rapidly through many key posts.

GM Korea has been hard pressed since the Chevrolet brand was withdrawn from Europe, as that market constituted the lion’s share of overseas export operations. The company’s plants are running at about 60% of capacity, largely because of steep productions cuts at the Gunsan plant, which relied on Europe for a high percentage of its sales.

Rocha has been bucking headwinds the past three years as GM Korea wages continued to rise steadily, while worker productivity is lower than that of GM’s operations in the U.S., China and India.

The company attained better than a 10% share of the domestic market in August and September, a goal Rocha has pursued since his first day on the job in Korea.