Randy Parker Tapped to Lead Hyundai and Genesis in North America
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.
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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.
Andrew Beckford’s passion for cars started as a middle schooler when his friend Richie explained how an internal combustion engine works. He was bitten by the bug and the rest, as they say, is history. He dug deep into the tuner scene and eventually wrote for Turbo Magazine, Import Tuner, Super Street. He covered car shows, feature builds, and reviewed racing games for those magazines in addition to covering motorsports including Formula Drift, Indy Car, and F1 for his personal blog. Eventually Beckford joined MotorTrend to cover the daily automotive news beat. Besides being a gearhead, Beckford has been a gamer since the ’80s and is a huge fan of the arcade racing games of the ’90s like Daytona USA, SEGA Rally, and Ridge Racer. Beckford’s a movie buff as well, especially comic book films from DC and Marvel. When car culture crosses over with gaming and entertainment, rest assured Beckford is aware of it. In addition to serving as a consultant on a “triple A” racing titles, he’s reviewed major racing games such as Forza Motorsport, Need for Speed, Gran Turismo, F1, and more. He’s also interviewed blockbuster directors including Steven Caple Jr. (Transformers: Rise of the Beasts) and Neill Blomkamp (Gran Turismo). His biggest profile to date was with Robert Downey Jr. on his love affair with cars and his show Downey’s Dream Cars on MAX. Beckford’s profile of Downey Jr. was the first print cover story written by an African American in MotorTrend’s history. Along with KJ Jones, Andrew Beckford also heads up MotorTrend’s celebration of Black History Month by spotlighting diverse voices in the automotive industry and motorsports. Beckford’s first car was a 1982 Nissan Stanza affectionately named “Stanley” by his late mother.
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