Hyundai Australia’s new boss makes history

Hyundai Australia has turned to one of its parent company’s seasoned executives to lead its charge back up Australia’s new-car sales charts.

Don Romano has been appointed Hyundai Motor Company Australia (HMCA) President and CEO, succeeding Ted Lee in the latter role and becoming the first local head of the Korean carmaker to not hail from the brand’s home nation.

Mr Romano has also become an advisor for Hyundai Motor Asia & Pacific Region. Both roles also encompass taking care of Hyundai’s luxury brand, Genesis.

Though he’s new to Australia, Mr Romano is a Hyundai veteran, having been with the carmaker since 2014 as president and CEO in his native Canada.

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During his time there, Hyundai became the second-largest imported vehicle brand and the fourth most-popular carmaker overall, increasing its market share from 7.3 to 8.2 per cent.

This included him overseeing Genesis becoming the first brand in Canada to introduce an agency sales model – something which has been done controversially in Australia by the likes of Honda and Mercedes-Benz.

Mr Romano’s appointment to the top role at Hyundai in Australia comes amid a slide down the pecking order of auto brands for the Korean carmaker locally.

In 2021, Hyundai was Australia’s third-largest auto brand, behind only Toyota and Mazda. The following year saw it shuffled to fifth behind stablemate Kia and Mitsubishi.

While it retained this spot in 2023 (after Ford vaulted to third and Mitsubishi dropped to sixth), the Japanese brand usurped it last year, pushing Hyundai to sixth place in 2024.

In the decade between 2014 and 2024, Hyundai’s share of the Australian market went from 9.0 to 5.9 per cent.

In 2025, though Hyundai has a comfortable gap to MG behind it, at least half a dozen new brands – mostly from China – are set to launch locally this year, further crowding an already highly competitive and increasingly fragmented market.

“It is an honour to join Hyundai and Genesis in Australia and the broader Asia Pacific region,” Mr Romano said in a media statement.

“With 74 competitor brands – expected to rise to 80 within the next 12 months – Australia is one of the most challenging automotive markets on earth.

“I look forward to working with the HMCA team to promote our world-beating products and to exceed customer expectations at every touchpoint.”

Prior to joining Hyundai, Mr Romano started his automotive career with Nissan USA in 1985, before moving to Mazda in 2000, where he became the company’s North American chief marketing officer and oversaw the now-iconic ‘Zoom-Zoom’ ad campaign.

While retaining his CMO role, he was promoted to become Mazda’s Canadian president in 2006, a position which he held until the end of 2013.

Hyundai Australia has confirmed Mr Lee will remain the company’s chief executive coordinator.