Mr Goult forms part the new-look senior management team at HMCA after a major restructure was initiated in February under chief operating officer John Kett, who signed on to the South Korean brand last August after many years of service in Australia and abroad for General Motors and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles.
As GoAuto reported exclusively at the time, the restructure was, according to Mr Kett, designed to “allow our business to move forward in a highly competitive automotive market with greater ambition, efficiency and effectiveness” and saw the shock departure of some of HMCA’s most senior executives.
These included customer experience director (and former marketing head) Oliver Mann, sales operations director Giles Belcher, sales operations general manager Gary Knight, general manager of network development Tony Hutton and senior manager of customer experience Paul Jenzen.
Bill Thomas retained his position as marketing director, but moves were underway for him to refocus his attention on the public relations department that he continued to oversee when stepping up to the chief marketing role a year earlier.
Those moves in early 2019 came when Mr Mann was tapped to oversee the newly created customer experience division, which put aftersales, parts, technical services, network development and customer care under the one umbrella – and was subsequently disassembled under Mr Kett’s restructure this year that now sees CRM (customer relationship management) report into marketing.
Mr Thomas is now general manager of corporate communications and partnerships, while Mr Goult’s leadership of the marketing division – like every other member of the senior management team under Mr Kett and chief executive Jun Heo (who was appointed in November) – hands him responsibility “to better initiate great ideas and change the business in a real and positive way”.
After gaining extensive experience in marketing and other functions at Audi and, most notably, JLR, Mr Goult has spent the past few years working as a consultant for brands both outside and within the automotive industry, including BMW and Skoda.
He previously spent five years at Audi Australia as general manager of marketing, product planning, CRM and digitalisation, from 2012 to 2017, after moving up through the ranks at JLR in Australia and Britain over more than two decades.
He started out in the UK in the early 1990s as a technical apprentice in vehicle engineering and design and then worked his way across various engineering positions with Jaguar Cars, Rover Group and Land Rover.
Within 10 years, Mr Goult had risen to chassis PMT leader for Jaguar Cars, then changed gear in 2001 to become a product manager in Land Rover’s global marketing division.
In 2005, Mr Goult was appointed Asia-Pacific regional manager for Land Rover military and specialist vehicles (mining, police, diplomatic, etc), developing the business throughout the region including Australia where the British off-road brand supplied the Australian Defence Force with the Defender for many years.
By 2008, Mr Goult had joined JLR Australia and soon rose to marketing and public affairs manager for Land Rover and, in 2010, general manager of national marketing, sales and distribution for Jaguar – a position he held for two years before switching to Audi.
Mr Goult left Audi five years later amid wide-ranging management moves which included splitting up his areas of responsibility at director level.
Under a restructure implemented by managing director Paul Sansom, who had joined Audi Australia some six months earlier, corporate communications director Anna Burgdorf took on the additional responsibility of marketing (subsequently taken over eight months later by Nikki Warburton) while the product planning function went to former BMW Group Australia product and market planning chief Shawn Ticehurst.
Responsibility for CRM was taken over by Joshua Wood, who moved up as CX (customer experience) and digital innovation director after working for seven years in this field with the company.
In announcing HMCA’s latest management overhaul to the dealer network in February, Mr Kett said the aim was to flatten the organisational structure across all divisions and bring improvements across key business areas including customer and dealer relations and, ultimately, sales, which fell 8.6 per cent last year to 86,104 units.
“We truly understand the frustrations you feel with our business, so rest assured, these changes will improve our practices and allow us to work more closely with you to drive better results,” Mr Kett said.
“Dealer network relations is a heartfelt passion of both myself and our CEO Mr Jun Heo and we will deliver on this promise.
“This is an unsettling and challenging time for our company, so please bear with us as we work through this period of change.
“But it is also an amazing opportunity. On Monday (February 3), I encouraged our staff to view it in this way – a chance to change our business and work more closely together to drive future results.
“This will lead to an improved working relationship with you and the broader network, and more understanding of your needs by us.”
By Terry Martin
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