Chris Susock has been president and CEO of Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama for just over a year, and he is leading the very plant he helped establish more than 20 years ago.
In 2004, Susock made his way to Montgomery to organize and develop manufacturing processes for the new HMMA, Hyundai’s first auto assembly plant in the United States.
By early 2005, the billion-dollar plant was up and running with team members assembling the 2006 Sonata.
Today, Susock oversees a team of 4,200 that assembles the Santa Fe, the Santa Cruz, the Tucson, the Genesis GV70 that HMMA began producing in 2023, and the Genesis Electrified GV70.
And, this year, Susock and the team members are preparing to commemorate HMMA’s 20th anniversary.
HMMA, an independent manufacturing operation, features a stamping shop, a welding shop with more than 400 robots and a paint shop where vehicle bodies are dipped, primed and painted, a general assembly area as well as three engine shops.
Some of the engines are made specifically for Hyundai’s other company, Kia Georgia plant in West Point, Georgia.
He graduated from Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan, in 1986; then spent 15 years working at the Ford Motor Co. assembly plant in Wixom, Michigan, in various management positions that included quality manager and off-shift operations production manager.
Before becoming HMMA’s president and CEO, Susock’s career in the automotive industry began more than 30 years ago.
Then in 2004, Hyundai hired Susock to help establish a new plant in Montgomery, by developing the facility’s organizational and manufacturing processes.
He served as HMMA’s North American Manufacturing Quality Operations from 2004 until 2015 before becoming HMMA’s chief operations officer and vice president.
In 2022, Hyundai tapped Susock to become the chief operating officer and senior vice president of HMMA. Two years later, the company promoted him to HMMA’s president and CEO.
Today, Susock manages the assembly, engineering and maintenance at the plant as well as the plant’s expansion.
Gail Allyn Short is a Birmingham-based freelance contributor to Business Alabama.
This article appears in the February 2025 issue of Business Alabama.
