Hyundai Hands Its Dealer Network to a 15-Year Insider

Hyundai Motor North America has promoted Mark Kato to vice president of dealer network development, putting a 15-year company veteran in charge of expanding and supporting the Hyundai and Genesis dealer networks across North America.

Kato took the job on October 12 and reports to Randy Parker, president and CEO of Hyundai Motor North America. He had been executive director of dealer development, overseeing dealer agreements and strategy, facilities and branding, operations and analytics, and dealer performance management for both brands, and the new role keeps all of that under him with a wider remit.

Hyundai announced the promotion on October 13. "Mark has been instrumental in helping Hyundai and Genesis build one of the strongest dealer networks in the industry and developing lasting relationships with our retailers," Parker said. "Dealers know him, trust him and value the way he approaches challenges and opportunities."

Kato joined Hyundai Motor America in 2011 after more than two decades on the manufacturer side of the business in regional dealer operations, network planning and performance management, which gives him 34 years in the industry, and he holds a finance degree from California State University, Long Beach. Hyundai sells through more than 855 independent dealers in the US and is coming off its best third quarter ever, so the network he inherits is growing rather than shrinking.

For shoppers the appointment is about stores rather than cars. Kato’s teams decide where new Hyundai and Genesis dealerships open, what they look like and how dealers are measured, which shapes how far buyers have to drive for a Genesis and what the showroom and service experience is like once they get there.

The HyundaiHQ Take

Promoting from inside the dealer development group is the safe call and probably the right one, because the hard part of Hyundai’s next few years is not finding buyers but keeping 855-plus dealers happy while the brand pushes Genesis toward its own stores and asks everyone to stock more hybrids. A dealer-side lifer who already holds the agreements and the facilities budget can do that without a learning curve, and the fact that Parker leaned on the word "trust" in the announcement says Hyundai knows how much goodwill that relationship is going to need.