Former GM Designer Joins China’s Chery Automobile

Chery Automobile Co. has appointed industry veteran Steve Eum to be the company’s design director, effective July 3.

Eum will replace James Hope, who will continue to work for Chery in an unspecified position, Reuters reports. The news agency cites an internal document and several unnamed sources.

Eum is a 50-year-old Korean-American who most recently was design chief for General Motors Co.’s SAIC-GM-Wuling Auto (SGMW) joint venture in China. His credits there include restyling the company’s Baojun cars.

Eum previously was an assistant chief designer at GM's advanced design studio in southern California from 2000 to 2012. He also worked for Ford and Hyundai.

At Chery, Eum will report to Ray Bierzynski, a Chery vice president and GM veteran who also worked at SGMW before joining Chery in 2015. Eum tells Reuters that his mandate at Chery will be to take the company’s design to the “next level.”