• MSNBC/Financial Times, Wednesday, July 11, 2007 1:45 PM

Hyundai Motor's marketing team is readying two key marketing efforts: a launch campaign for a new luxury car--the Genesis--which it hopes will propel it into the same league as Lexus, BMW and Mercedes, and an image campaign for chairman Chung Mong-koo, who was convicted of embezzling company money and breach of trust.

Chung, the 69-year-old son of Hyundai's founder, is appealing his conviction. He has won back his passport from the courts and has been traveling the world spearheading South Korea's campaign to be the host of Expo 2012. He also promised to donate "to society" $1 billion worth of shares in Glovis--the affiliate used for creating the slush funds that were key in his trial--over seven years.

South Korea has a long tradition of canceling the convictions--or at least the sentences--of conglomerate heads for fear of harming the "national economic interest." "We need chairman Chung," says Jake Jang, a Hyundai official. "He steers the ship and without a captain, it will be very difficult to navigate to the places we wish to go."

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