Hyundai Motor America has named Angela Zepeda, sr. VP and managing director at its agency of record INNOCEAN USA, as its new chief marketing officer. Zepeda will be responsible for all of Hyundai’s marketing and advertising activities in the U.S., including the strategic direction, brand development, national and regional advertising, experiential marketing, digital and social media, brand partnerships, and lead generation, among other responsibilities. She will report to Hyundai Motor America COO Brian Smith.
At INNOCEAN USA, Zepeda handled all operations for the Hyundai business including creative, planning and media operations. She was initially hired by the agency to head up business development.
“In the three years Angela has been at INNOCEAN USA, we have seen the positive results of her leadership as the agency has grown both internally and externally,” said Steve Jun, CEO and President, INNOCEAN USA. “We are excited that we will continue working with Angela in her new role at Hyundai, as we know the experience she brings as a leader will certainly bolster all of their marketing efforts.”
Zepeda is a seasoned marketing executive with more than 25 years of experience. She has built a career on consumer-centric campaigns that build brands and drive business results, and is an expert in online and digital marketing.
“It’s a great honor to be going in-house at Hyundai and I’m excited by the challenge of leading the marketing team during this transitional time for the automotive industry,” said Zepeda. “Hyundai is a brand on an upward trajectory with sales growth that outpaces the industry, a revamped product lineup, and a laser focus on the customer experience. I’m looking forward to getting started and building upon the marketing department’s recent successes and accomplishments.”
Hyundai’s Smith said, “Angela is a dynamic and accomplished marketer with an impressive depth of experience across the entire marketing spectrum and will be an outstanding addition to our leadership team. Angela was already a member of our extended family and we’ve seen firsthand her creativity, business acumen and talent in building our brand and leading teams. She is well-respected by the entire organization and our dealers, and will be able to seamlessly transition to leading the marketing function here at Hyundai.”
Previous to Innocean, Zepeda was CEO of Quigley-Simpson in Los Angeles, where she oversaw all aspects of the agency—from brand leadership to new business development to operational efficiencies. Before that, Zepeda was CMO of Campbell Ewald Los Angeles, where she played a key role in growing the agency’s business. Zepeda has also worked at some of Los Angeles’ best-known agencies, including TBWAChiatDay, Team One, Rapp, Doner, and FCB, providing counsel to clients in the automotive, healthcare, financial services and packaged goods industries.
Zepeda is also an expert in marketing to women, with a keen understanding of the emotional triggers involved in women’s retail habits. She has spoken on the topic at various conferences, including the ISSM CONVERGE Conference, the WLN Conference, the M2W Conference in Chicago, and the Marketing to Women Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Zepeda holds an MBA from the University of Southern California and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications and Advertising from California State University, Fullerton. She is a member of thinkLA, the American Association of Advertising Agencies, the American Advertising Federation and held board positions with the Susan G. Komen organization and the LA Grant Foundation.
Zepeda replaces Dean Evans as CMO, who after four successful years has decided to depart Hyundai to pursue other career opportunities. Sean Gilpin, VP of media planning at INNOCEAN USA will be the interim team lead while a search is conducted for a permanent replacement for Zepeda.
Carrie Coon Relishes Being Part Of An Ensemble–From “The Gilded Age” To “His Three Daughters”
It can be hard to catch Carrie Coon on her own.
She is far more likely to be found in the thick of an ensemble. That could be on TV, in "The Gilded Age," for which she was just Emmy nominated, or in the upcoming season of "The White Lotus," which she recently shot in Thailand. Or it could be in films, most relevantly, Azazel Jacobs' new drama, "His Three Daughters," in which Coon stars alongside Natasha Lyonne and Elizabeth Olsen as sisters caring for their dying father.
But on a recent, bright late-summer morning, Coon is sitting on a bench in the bucolic northeast Westchester town of Pound Ridge. A few years back, she and her husband, the playwright Tracy Letts, moved near here with their two young children, drawn by the long rows of stone walls and a particularly good BLT from a nearby cafe that Letts, after biting into, declared must be within 15 miles of where they lived.
In a few days, they would both fly to Los Angeles for the Emmys (Letts was nominated for his performance in "Winning Time" ). But Coon, 43, was then largely enmeshed in the day-to-day life of raising a family, along with their nightly movie viewings, which Letts pulls from his extensive DVD collection. The previous night's choice: "Once Around," with Holly Hunter and Richard Dreyfus.
Coon met Letts during her breakthrough performance in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe?" on Broadway in 2012. She played the heavy-drinking housewife Honey. It was the first role that Coon read and knew, viscerally, she had to play. Immediately after saying this, Coon sighs.
"It sounds like something some diva would say in a movie from the '50s," Coon says. "I just walked around in my apartment in my slip and I had pearls and a little brandy. I made a grocery list and I just did... Read More