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<h3>Hyundai America names new CEO</h3>

DETROIT (Reuters) - Hyundai Motor Co. Ltd. <005380.K> on Tuesday named O.S. Koh as president and chief executive officer of its U.S. division, replacing Bob Cosmai who left the company.

Koh was selected to streamline the decision-making process, enhance communication and position the company for future growth, the company said in a release.

Hyundai and Cosmai "have ended their relationship," the South Korean automaker said.

A phone call to a spokesman was not immediately returned.

Koh is a senior executive vice president of Hyundai and since 2005 has been at its American division where he was chief executive coordinator.

Hyundai now sells far more cars in the United States than Volkswagen AG (VOWG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research), Mazda Motor Corp. (7261.T: Quote, Profile, Research) and Subaru (7270.T: Quote, Profile, Research). It expects sales to rise more than 10 percent this year to over 500,000 units, in an overall market that it reckons will shrink.

In 2005, Hyundai's U.S. sales rose 9 percent to 455,012 units, giving it a market share of 2.7 percent.

South Korea's top automaker has also dramatically raised its profile on the world stage with a benchmark study by research firm J.D. Power showing an improvement in quality to match the best Japanese brands.


http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=businessNews&storyID=2006-01-17T201935Z_01_N17200617_RTRUKOC_0_US-AUTOS-HYUNDAI-CEO.xml&archived=False