Volcon hires veteran entrepreneur in advance of Stag launch
Volcon has appointed John Kim, who has served on the company’s board of directors as an independent director since July 2021, as chief executive officer.
Kim has come out of retirement to lead Volcon’s successful market launch of the Stag. Before joining Volcon’s Board of Directors, he was an accomplished serial entrepreneur and product designer, and is currently a private investor.
Kim was the chief executive officer and founder of Super73 Inc., an electric bicycle company, from 2012 until 2019. In 2003, he founded U-Life, an internet enabled home appliance company in South Korea, which was acquired by LG in 2006. Before his career as an entrepreneur, Kim was the principal designer for Yahoo Search, a car designer at Honda and a former U.S. Army paratrooper. Kim received a Master’s Degree in Design from Stanford University in 2001.
“Kim is an intensely driven, detail oriented, no nonsense executive who will significantly enhance the standards and discipline of the Volcon organization,” says Empery, Volcon’s majority lender.
“I’m very excited to have John on the team,” says Christian Okonsky, chairman of the Board of Volcon. “His skillset and background in building companies, designing products for manufacturing and successfully launching them on the market is what Volcon needs at this stage in our company’s life. John has a passion for building companies and products that appeal to consumers. With the imminent launch of the Stag, we have found the right leader to take this product to market and showcase its capabilities.”
“I’m extremely excited to be joining the passionate team here at Volcon,” Kim says. “Volcon is poised to become one of the most recognized brands in the off-road powersports industry with the launch of the Stag. As a board member, I could see the potential and having spent time meeting with the manufacturer, part suppliers and Volcon employees, I can see that the Stag will be a very special and market-defining product. There isn’t anything out there in the off-road EV space that has the performance of the Stag. The suppliers of the key components are industry leaders. The assembly facility in Mexico is up and running and ready for production. My focus is to get the Stag launched and build the Volcon brand in the off-road industry.”
