Hankook Europe Names Hee-Se Ahn VP Sales & Marketing

Hankook Tire Europe has elected Hee-Se Ahn (48) as Vice-President of Sales & Marketing for the tyre manufacturer’s European regional headquarters, located in Neu-Isenburg near Frankfurt/Germany. He succeeds Byeong-Jin Lee who has moved to a new management position at the group’s headquarters in Seoul/Korea. Mr Ahn’s responsibilities will include successfully integrating the company’s new 500 million euro Hungarian production plant into its future European marketing strategy.

“Our mid-term goal is to position the Hankook brand in the premium segment of the European market. Hee-Se Ahn brings a wealth of experience combining marketing and sales activities with its own regional production facility to Hankook Tire Europe,” said Seung-Do Jin, Executive Vice President of Hankook Tire and COO in Europe. “However, when we say premium we do not just mean in terms of the product, but also the service for our customers should be of premium quality. Mr. Ahn will therefore have a special focus on the full integration of the new Hungarian production facility into our European business.”

In his previous position, Mr. Ahn was responsible for marketing and sales in China, where the company operates two large production facilities. China is Hankook’s second biggest regional overseas market after Europe and according to the company, Hankook Tire holds the “uncontested leading position” in the tyre market there. Prior to this Ahn spent almost 15 years working in the Middle Eastern markets and was Director of the Hankook office in Dubai from 1997~2001.