A letter from ex-colleague of Hyundai Motor Holland

This is a letter from my old Dutch colleague who was PR manager at HMH in 1978 and 1980. The stories below would be good to recall my forgotten memories of the days in Leidschendam to be included in my book.
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Re: HMH pictures‏
보낸 사람:	W. van der Veer(wvdveprg@wxs.nl)
보낸 날짜:	2008년 4월 26일 토요일 오후 11:13:36
받는 사람:	전명헌 (mjuhn@hotmail.com)
참조:	B. Kreber (b.kreber@orange.nl); Jonet Sabee (jsabee@autodata.nl)

Dear Mr. Juhn (Juhn-si?)

I hope you are not in a hurry with collecting memories from the Leidschendam period. I moved house last year and have started to sort out the pictures referring to Hyundai. As said, there are hundreds of them. The scanned pictures do not give a good impression of the quality. They are perfect b/w negatives and prints.

It would be nice to have my Hyundai story 1978-1991 ready this year as Hyundai is now 30 years in the Netherlands. First introduction of Hyundai to the European market was in Belgian during the Brussels Motor Show of January 1979, followed the next month by the introduction to the Dutch market during the Amsterdam RAI Show of 1979. This was a great event with plenty of TV coverage, thanks to a Miss Lee, top model flown in from Korea, and Suky who would become Peter Komijn's wife. So Hyundai could celebrate 30 years on the Dutch market next year.

Apart from Jan Mol, Peter Komijn is somebody I meet from time tot time as we are both long-standing M.G. Car Club members (I since 1957 and Peter since 1979). He is a prominent man in the automotive trade - technical director of the Mazda distributor, part of the Autobinck Holding who also owns Greenib Car since 2000. He is married to a Korean wife Suky (Soo-kjong?).

Jonet I met a few years ago at Autodata, also quite prominent in the Dutch automotive trade with CEO Wil Brouwers who was responsible for the computerisation of Greenib Car in the Eighties. He introduced me to computers in my small operation as well, with the first Hyundai PC imported in the Netherlands, in 1987.

The rest of the names you mention, Hartog, Seegers, Ed van Daalen and Jongejan have disappeared out of my sight. One important man I have not been able to contact yet - he has been seriously ill - is Wim Harmsen who arranged the European homologation of new Hyundai models. As far as I know the European homologation is still arranged from Holland as a continuation of Wim Harmsen's pioneering activity.

Please excuse me for being able to spare little time on research in my own material and from those I could interview. It would be interesting to learn your views on the development of Hyundai's European market from the Leidschendam days. Lee, Soo-Chun told me on Saturday mornings about what he had done to get the Pony project off the ground. Most impressive. I heard he died of a heart attach in the Eighties. He taught me almost everything I know about the teamwork between Europeans and Koreans. On the same Saturday mornings I was taught the fundamentals of Han-gul. I kept all the documents of those lessons. They were indispensable in my PR work explaining the Korean background. At the time South-Korea was only known for the Korean War (in which also a Dutch contingent fought the North-Koreans), Ginseng and orphans adopted by Dutch couples. The literacy, rebuilding the cultural heritage after the Japanese occupation and the determination to become an industrial power, were elements which figured in my texts and articles written in the period of my functioning for HMH and later Greenib Car.

Summarising: My work for Hyundai has been an important stage both in my business career and my personal life.

Let's keep in touch.

Best regards,

Pim van der Veer

P.S,

Are you the third person from the left on the picture with the first parts shipment on 1 December 1978?