LEADERS of Southeast Asia’s most powerful countries recently got a chance to experience Hyundai Motor Co.’s most luxurious sedans. Hyundai, one of the world’s largest automakers, provided 96 premium cars for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations-Republic of Korea (Asean-ROK) Commemorative Summit 2009 as part of its efforts to strengthen the company’s image in the luxury market.

Hyundai Motor, which provided the cars for the June 1 and 2 summit at Jeju Island, Korea, held a handover ceremony before the summit at the Jeju International Convention Center (ICC) on May 27, which was attended by over 100 company officials and other guests, including the executive director general of the Asean-ROK Commemorative Summit 2009 Preparatory Office, Ambassador Lee Ji Ha.

Hyundai delivered 38 Equus sedans, the company’s new luxury flagship sedan launched in March, and 46 Genesis sedans, the winner of the 2009 North American Car of the Year. Hyundai also delivered 12 Santa Fe SUVs. The cars served as the official transportation method for the presidents, the prime ministers and the most senior officials attending, as well as their spouses.

Hyundai recently launched a global VIP marketing campaign to enhance its brand image worldwide. The company has provided its high-end sedans to many celebrities and dignitaries, including José Carreras, a member of the massively popular Three Tenors, along with Luciano Pavarotti and Plácido Domingo.

JAGUAR Land Rover was recently named as a Top Employer by the UK’s leading work-life balance organization, Working Families.

As part of the Working Families 30th anniversary celebration and coinciding with the UK National Family Week, a list of the “best of the best” employers over the past 30 years was drawn up following judging by an eminent panel. The charity supports and gives a voice to working parents and “carers” while helping employers create workplaces that encourage work-life balance.

Jaguar Land Rover was chosen because of its wide range of established policies to support working parents. These include flexible working hours; class-leading maternity and adoption leave provision; nurseries at two of its sites; breast-feeding facilities; a child-care voucher system; career breaks; emergency care scheme for dependants; and Diversity and Inclusion Awards. The Diversity and Inclusion Awards is an annual event, which recognizes the efforts of individuals and teams who have made outstanding contributions to the company goal of creating a diverse and inclusive environment.

“There is an increase in the number of women joining the work force, women continuing to work after maternity leave, and men wishing to take active roles in family life. To maintain our position as an employer of choice, we need to ensure we have policies which reflect the changing world of work,” said Suzanne Bailey, Jaguar Land Rover employee engagement and diversity manager.

Jaguar Land Rover work-life policies are well-recognized and are regularly benchmarked by other organizations seeking to introduce similar policies. In 2005 Jaguar Land Rover was the winner of the Women in Science, Engineering and Technology Working Families’ Employer of the Year award. The award was based on the company’s excellent understanding and communication of the business case for diversity in the challenging world of Automotive Engineering.

WHEN the 2009 Auto Focus People’s Choice Awards (AFPC) poll gets going from July 1 to September 31, participants will have the opportunity to vote not only through the Auto Focus web site at www.autofocus.com.ph but also via ballots that will be printed weekly in the motoring section of the Philippine Star, as well as in both of the country’s leading motoring magazines. The July to September issues of Top Gear and Speed magazines will include a full page ballot that voters can fill in with their choices for “Models of the Year” in 12 various categories and for “Automobile of the Year.” The accomplished ballot may then be mailed to the Sunshine Television (STV) offices at the Valle Verde Country Club in Pasig City on or before October 2.

More important, by virtue of the 2009 Poll Rules promulgated by the AFPC Awards Committee, qualified ballots coming from magazine partners will carry a multiplier factor of x5. “This means that each official Top Gear and Speed magazine ballot counts for 5 votes and will be reflected as such in the overall tally at poll’s end,” explained Gerry Aquino, the chairman of the committee. “The x5 multiplier is in consideration of the fact that a mail-in ballot entails a more significant degree of effort and expense on the part of the voter, as compared with those who participate online at the Auto Focus web site. Voting online is absolutely free and convenient. Voting via mail-in ballot requires that the magazine be obtained, and costs subsequently are incurred when the ballot is coursed through the postal system. It is thus fair that some manner of reward or incentive be extended in such a case,” Aquino added.

Ray Butch Gamboa, STV chairman & CEO, welcomed the partnership with Top Gear Philippines (TGP) during the contract signing with Chad Rosario, TGP publisher and Vernon Sarne, editor in chief, held on May 21 at the Sports Den of the Valle Verde Country Club in Pasig City. “This is a new dimension to what has essentially been a web-based poll exercise in the past. As the AFPC Awards enters its fifth year and grows in prestige, it is a privilege to be associated with publications that share our vision of service to the industry and the motoring public. This partnership with Top Gear, as well as Speed magazine, affords the public another alternative means of participation in the vote to determine the country’s most popular automobile brands and models,” said Gamboa. In response, Rosario recognized “the synergy of the tie-up brings and the benefits it will give to readers and subscribers of the magazine. Top Gear magazine features all auto makes and models, from everyday passenger sedans to the most exotic supercars money can buy. The AFPC Awards take on the same scope in their public nationwide poll. Our coverage and demographic outreach are similar, and complimentary,” added Sarne. Speed’s editor in chief Manny de los Reyes also addressed the well-known magazine’s readers: “We at Speed magazine are excited to be part of the 2009 Auto Focus People’s Choice Awards. Our tech-savvy and very knowledgeable readers will surely grab the chance to have their say on what their picks for the different automobile categories are.” A Grand Raffle will be held in October during the attendant Auto Focus Motor Show & Auto Expo with very attractive prizes for those who have voted and their names computer drawn. The prizes will be announced once we open the poll on July 1,” Gamboa added.

The 2009 Auto Focus People’s Choice Awards is a nationwide public poll to determine the Philippines’ most popular automobile brands and models. Awards go to Model of the Year winners in 12 separate categories: subcompact, compact, medium size and large sedans; sports car, AUV, mini and large vans, pickup, compact, medium and large SUVs. All the models in the various categories will vie for the 2009 Automobile of the Year award. The public may participate online by registering and voting online on the Auto Focus web site. They may also fill out and mail-in ballots to be printed weekly in the motoring section of the Philippine Star and Top Gear Philippines and Speed magazines.