General Motors Installs Hector Villareal as New CEO for Its Operations in South Korea

General Motors has appointed a new chief executive officer for its business unit in South Korea. The automaker announced that Hector Villareal would lead its Korean operations and will assume the CEO role on Aug. 1.

Villareal is currently the vice president of sales, service, and marketing at General Motors’ Mexico unit. He was revealed to have also been assigned to other GM operations, including in Russia, Uzbekistan, and Southeast Asia.

Once he takes over and starts working at GM Korea, aside from being the chief, he will also serve as the group’s president. The leadership change was announced on Friday, June 16.

According to The Korea Herald, the new CEO has a long career in the industry. He started his career with the company after being hired at General Motors Mexico in 1990, and since then, he held different positions across the automaker’s organization and foreign branches.

The company said that Villareal’s remarkable expertise would play a big role in boosting GM Korea’s export business as well as growing the domestic market share. To achieve this, he is expected to focus on a comprehensive brand strategy and develop the sales network to raise the brand’s presence in the country.

In any case, Villarreal is set to replace Roberto Rempel, who has served as GM for almost four decades. He will be retiring now after successfully leading GM’s Korean team by achieving valuable growth in the local market.

“Reberto has successfully led the Korean team building the foundation for the sustainable future as the next phase in their transformational journey by turning around the business and reaching to the momentum of profitable growth in the domestic market,” GM International’s senior vice president, Shilpan Amin, said in a press release, “We are grateful of Roberto’s leadership, dedication, and contribution to GM.”

He added, “Hector has a proven track record in driving commercial growth and developing a multi-brand strategy in GM Mexico. I am confident he will lead GM Korea to the next phase of transformation with a well-defined brand strategy, continuous optimization of our sales network, and robust customer experiences to increase the presence in the domestic market while maximizing the production output of global products.”

Photo by: GM Press Room