GM Korea Woos Microsoft Korea CEO, Reports Say

GM Korea reportedly will hire Microsoft Korea CEO James Woo Kim as chief operating officer and succeed Sergio Rocha as chief executive officer sometime next year.

The automaker will neither confirm nor deny the reports. A spokesman tells WardsAuto a news release will be issued “if (Kim) comes to GM Korea.”

The Korea Times, a leading English-language newspaper in Seoul, reports Kim will take over as CEO of GM Korea in April 2016 after spending a 10-month period as COO. The Korea Economic Daily and other Korean-language publications in Seoul carry similar reports.

Kim could not be reached by WardsAuto for comment.

Kim, a specialist in corporate reorganization, largely has succeeded in fulfilling his assignment to turn Microsoft Korea around since becoming CEO in February 2009.  Microsoft Korea was named the global corporation’s top-performing subsidiary each of his first three years at the position.

Kim holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from UCLA and an MBA from Harvard.

He is in his second term as chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea, whose membership includes virtually every CEO of every major American subsidiary operation in the country. Kim is the first Korean-American to hold that post.