On heels of a planned merger among its parent company’s entities, Develon North America has brought in a new CEO, longtime Hyundai Doosan executive Woohyun Kim.
Kim’s 20 years of industry experience trace back to 2001, when he began at Doosan Group in its human resources department. He went on to spend 16 years at Hyundai Doosan Infracore, in positions including Middle East sales director, Asia and Oceania sales director and even an early period as CEO executive assistant.
The last three years of Kim’s career have been at Develon North America, moving through positions including director of commercial programs and remarketing, director of commercial planning and production management and, most recently, as director of sales operation and programs.
One of Kim’s more recent accomplishments was leading the opening of Develon’s North American Customer Utilization Plant in Savannah, Georgia.
As CEO of Develon North America – also known as HD Hyundai Infracore North America – Kim says he plans to build on the company’s recent success, pointing to “significant progress in recent years, changing the brand and expanding our construction equipment lineup.” The Doosan equipment brand formally rebranded to Develon in 2023.
Prior to Kim’s arrival, Kwanhee Jeong, a fellow Doosan executive veteran, had served as the CEO and president of HD Hyundai Infracore North America since January 2023. Jeong’s career at Doosan goes back to 2006, when he joined Doosan Group as a senior manager of corporate strategy. From June 2021 to December 2022, Jeong served as the CEO and president of HD Hyundai Infracore Europe.
The parent company for Hyundai and Develon announced earlier this month its plans to merge its construction equipment subsidiaries and brands into a new company tentatively called “HD Construction Equipment” – dropping “Hyundai” from its name and adding the Develon brand.
HD Construction Equipment will be the result of a merger of HD Hyundai Construction Equipment, which carries the Hyundai brand, and HD Hyundai Infracore, which carries the Develon brand. The merger is set for January 1, pending shareholder and regulatory approval.
