GM lands former Hyundai marketing star

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- General Motors has named Joel Ewanick, the former head of marketing for Hyundai Motor America, its new vice president of marketing in the United States.

While at Hyundai, Ewanick was credited with creating Hyundai's successful Hyundai Assurance sales promotion. Under that program, which launched in early 2009, Hyundai offered to take back a Hyundai buyer's new car if the buyer lost his or her job within a year of the purchase.

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Joel Ewanick

"Joel is highly regarded in industry and marketing circles and his track record speaks for itself," Mark Reuss, president of GM North America, said in a statement. "We are very pleased to have his marketing acumen, creative leadership and energy at GM at this critical time."

Hyundai sales picked up following the announcement and other automakers, including GM, launched similar programs in the coming months. Hyundai was one of the few automakers to post an overall sales increase during 2009.

Ewanick had recently left Hyundai to join Nissan as that automaker's head of U.S. marketing in March. He will take up his new position at GM at the end of May.

In his new post, Ewanick replaces Susan Docherty. Docherty formerly headed GM's Buick-GMC division and, after GM emerged from bankruptcy last summer, she was promoted to head GM's marketing and sale efforts. Her responsibilities were were later scaled back to marketing alone. A new role for Docherty will be announced later, GM said in an announcement.