Hyundai Canada announces senior leadership appointments across business divisions

Hyundai Auto Canada (HAC) announced today several changes and promotions to its senior leadership team, outlining the organization’s core focus on servicing and enhancing the customer experience and aftersales journey.

Ken Maisonville has been promoted to the role of executive director, customer experience and aftersales. Most recently, Maisonville held the position of director, national sales, where he helped increase market share from 6.5 per cent to 8 per cent in his five-year tenure. Maisonville’s career with HAC spans 27 years with progressive roles in dealer development; product planning; field staff management and corporate strategy. In his new role, Maisonville will be responsible for all customer-facing teams at Hyundai Canada. This includes the customer experience team; dealership training; customer relations; parts and accessories sales; technical assistance; quality assurance; service development; warranty, and the “Voice of the Customer” division which was created in 2021. Maisonville succeeds Michel Poirier, who relocated to Hyundai’s American headquarters in California at the end of 2023 after being promoted to vice president of aftersales and customer experience.

Steve Flamand will shift to a new role of executive director, sales and digital strategy. In this new, combined role at Hyundai Auto Canada, Flamand will be responsible for directing all aspects of sales activities and personnel, while also leading strategic and operational planning to support the overall business objectives. He will also maintain leadership of the recently established digital strategy function and the IT division. Flamand has 30 years of experience in the automotive industry working for both domestic and import brands in positions around the globe. Flamand has a proven international track record of creating and building leading concepts, pioneering new business opportunities, making decisions based on consumer insights, and responding to market trends. Under Flamand’s leadership, Hyundai Auto Canada successfully launched over 20 all-new or refreshed nameplates since joining the company in early 2018. Additionally, Flamand and his team strategized pricing and packaging that contributed to Hyundai offering Canada’s most awarded, fully electric vehicle lineup.¹

Michael Ricciuto is appointed to the role of director, product and corporate strategy. In his new position, Ricciuto will oversee the product portfolio life cycle activities, pricing and packaging strategies. Additionally, Ricciuto will spearhead the corporate planning strategies for both short- and long-term business plans while providing research insights to support vehicle sales and marketing strategies to the Canadian market. To ensure government relations and product teams are in lock step in view of the new federal and provincial ZEV and GHG requirements, Ricciuto will continue to be responsible for Regulatory Activities. Ricciuto’s automotive career is rooted in regulation dating back to 2004 and includes a diverse range of roles across many functions, including product portfolio management; product strategy; and network development. The Genesis brand in Canada was successfully launched with Ricciuto as its director back in 2016.

Claire Kim is promoted to national manager of a new position at Hyundai Auto Canada, product line management (PLM). In her role, Claire Kim will spearhead the PLM business unit to support the sales analysis and forecasting of product needs to sustain market share and improve cross-organizational alignment. Claire Kim’s career with Hyundai dates to 2017, where she started as a PO coordinator, and quickly rose through the finance department ranks leading up to her most recent position, senior manager of product pricing and strategic planning.

Claire Kim’s leadership and sound analysis combined with cross functional collaboration within HAC, and Hyundai offices around the globe was instrumental in the development and deployment of the Hyundai and Genesis pricing strategies that drove significant margin improvements and record profitability. Other accomplishments include driving Hyundai Canada to place amongst the best in the Canadian market in residual value performance. Claire Kim was also named to Automotive News Canada’s “2023 Canadians to Watch” list.

David Badurina is promoted to director, general counsel. Badurina will maintain his responsibilities to proactively address business and legal risk within Hyundai Canada’s business units, bolstering the organization’s corporate governance, and leading the legal framework underpinning Genesis’ unique business model in Canada. Badurina’s responsibility to direct all legal matters pertaining to the organization, including providing legal advice to management will remain the same with the support of his legal team and external firms. Badurina’s career with HAC began in 2011 as corporate counsel, with roles of increasing responsibility leading to his most recent post as general counsel.

Kevin Kim is promoted to director, finance, providing leadership and strategic guidance to the finance team overseeing accounting, planning and analysis, tax, financial reporting and extended warranty and internal audit and financial controls. Kevin Kim’s responsibilities entail ensuring compliance with company policies and all financial and government regulations, influencing high-level management decisions, and ensuring accurate and timely financial reporting, forecasting, and planning.

Kevin Kim joined Hyundai Canada as national manager, finance in 2016 which was the start of exponential growth for Hyundai in Canada. During this time, Kevin Kim streamlined vehicle P&L management and established new benchmarks for processing and reporting.