Ken Maisonville | Photo supplied by Benny Leung
It’s been almost 30 years since Ken Maisonville joined Hyundai Canada. And although he actually took a pay cut from the government job he was doing prior to the OEM gig, because it wasn’t exciting and he liked cars, he has come a long way. Hyundai promoted Maisonville two weeks ago to chief operating officer, a role created because of the company’s growth in Canada, from executive director of customer experience and after-sales.
The move is the latest in a series since the parent company moved Don Romano (president and CEO of Canadian operations since 2014) in March to a similar role with Hyundai Australia and chief advisor to the Hyundai Asia Pacific region. Steve Flamand, who worked closely with Romano as executive director of sales and strategy, took over as president and CEO.
Romano said in a text to Canadian auto dealer that Maisonville is perfect for the job. “He’s extremely bright with more experience at Hyundai than anyone else,” said Romano. “He understands the business from every angle. He will be President eventually.”
Maisonville said this will be an interesting role for him because he’s been more of a “behind-the-scenes” person his whole career. “I love working with dealers, and Don really reinforced that with us. It’s just a great opportunity to work with all the key departments.”
Maisonville joined Hyundai in 1987, a year after graduating from McMaster University. He was working in a government job when a friend who worked at Hyundai’s head office suggested he consider applying to the company.
“I worked for the government – I’m not going to say which one – and I took a pay cut and came to automotive because I liked cars,” said Maisonville. “If you’re not sure what you want to do in life, at least pick an industry you’re interested in. When you’re trying to find your way in the world, it gives you a head start at least.”
He interviewed with Hyundai’s president, Steve Kelleher, and said the conversation centred around playing goalie, which they both had in common, and hockey. Kelleher played at Cornell University, while Maisonville played in his hometown of Sharon. He was subsequently hired. “I got lucky,” said Maisonville.
He began as a systems analyst and said the company was so small it allowed him to learn how everything worked. At the time he joined Hyundai Canada, the company had gone through a period of declining sales, selling only about 18,000 new units a year. The workforce was slashed in half and went through a period of reorganization. When Kelleher decided to retire in 2014, Romano took over.
Hyundai has had tremendous growth in Canada in recent years, and is expected to sell 150,000 new cars this year, highlighted by 14 consecutive months of record sales. It is one of the top import brands and one of the leaders in electric-vehicle sales.
“The automotive business is super exciting, there’s always new stuff but we’ve just grown,” Maisonville said of both Hyundai and Genesis. “There’s a lot more going on than there was in the past. I think we’re on a great trajectory. It’s been many, many years and I know we can continue that because there’s a lot of great stuff to do. We just keep pumping out new products.”
He laughed at the baseball analogy that he has become the setup man for Flamand. “As companies get bigger, it just happens that silos are formed,” said Maisonville. “Every department wants to do their own thing. I led sales for many years. I led product. I’ve done service. As much as we work together, we all also do our own thing a little bit.”
“I think the key for this job is to glue them all together to make sure we’re doing things in conjunction,” he said. “The customer journey is not one department at a time. The departments I’m going to be looking over are marketing, after-sales, sales and really IT is a huge part of it – connected cars and using technology. None of those make sense if you’re not connecting with dealers. That’s an exciting part, too. As much as Hyundai has evolved, the dealers have evolved. They are so much better than they were way back then.”
Rein Knol, Hyundai Dealer Council chair, said that with the growth of the company in Canada and Flamand moving into the president’s role, more support was needed at head office. He said Maisonville has the experience to do that, having worked in virtually every important department.
“Ken is one of these people who has been around a long time but is very highly respected by the dealer body,” said Knol. “Not only is he very knowledgeable, he’s a very transparent guy about what can and can’t be done, and he knows his stuff. He really deserves this role, no doubt.”
Toronto Hyundai/Genesis Yorkdale dealer principal Benny Leung, who has known Maisonville, praised him. Maisonville spoke at the official opening of Leung’s dealership earlier this year.
“I’ve known him for 20 years, he’s an excellent guy,” said Leung. “He’s moved up step by step and I’ve learned a lot of things from him.”
