LOS ANGELES — Genesis Motor America has chosen Inifiniti executive Tedros Mengiste as its new sales director following the March transfer of Genesis COO Erwin Raphael to Hyundai Motor America.
Mengiste will take over the sales and dealer-facing duties from Raphael beginning immediately and will report to Mark Del Rosso, CEO of Genesis Motor America, the company said in a release. Mengiste’s formal title is executive director, sales operations. The 23-year auto industry veteran was most recently regional vice president at Infiniti USA.
“Ted has exactly what Genesis needs as we extend our ‘Young Luxury’ platform,” Del Rosso, said in a statement. “I’d like to welcome him to the Genesis family and can’t wait to introduce him to our retail network.”
The recruitment of Mengiste follows a trend of Nissan executives finding new positions at the Korean automaker following the appointment of Jose Muñoz as Hyundai North American CEO. Muñoz was a 15-year veteran of Nissan before his abrupt departure in January 2019. He started at Hyundai one year ago.
In October, the Korean automaker named Robert Grafton from Infiniti to implement its dealer network strategy and improve dealer relations as executive director of dealer development. Grafton reports to Randy Parker, vice president of national sales, who is a former Infiniti U.S. sales chief hired by Hyundai in May 2019.
Del Rosso took over as CEO of Genesis North America in October of last year after executive positions at Audi of America and Bentley Americas.
