Inside the Genesis GV90 at Medinah with Amy Marentic

0:00What is up and welcome back to the Dan Evans show right here on Sports Illustrated. We are on the hallowed grounds of Medina Country Club for the 2026 Presidents Cup. And of course, the vehicle sponsor has to be a beautiful car to fit such a beautiful event. It is Genesis. You see it around course, you see it here. But I am joined by somebody from the Genesis team that I am beyond excited to chat with. I just a little bit to go into this. My guest today has built one of the most impressive and fascinating careers in the automotive world. Aerospace engineering, global executive, nearly three decades in the industry, all the way from big tech data analytics. You name it. And now she's helping lead one of the most exciting luxury brands in the world into its next chapter. I'm honored to welcome to the show, the beautiful and wonderful Amy, Marrent. Amy, how are you? Oh my gosh, Dan, that was so lovely. I am fantastic. I am fantastic. How are you? I'm great. I mean, you put me at a golf tournament and I'm just in my zone.

1:00I'm grooving. And here I feel like this is like, we want to be in the action. You seem like an action person. And what a beautiful day. I mean, back in the Midwest, and it's a good golf shot day. Days like this. Genesis is playing such a cool role here at the president's Cup. I imagine there's so much time where all of this is on paper. And it's in schematics and all this stuff. But then you get here and see it. Does it sort of hit different? It does. You know, you just kind of exhale and you know that we are at the right place. And it feels right. You know, you have all the data that says we should be here. When you get here and you get to talk to the fans and you get to see the reaction to, we have a new product here today, our GV90. It just feels right. I can't wait to dive into the GV90 with you. It's been like all over my social feeds. It's been everywhere, but we'll get there. Yeah. Like I do as I was reading and sort of discovering more about you. I realized you've got an incredible story,

2:03an incredible journey that has led you to this moment. And it started sort of as a small town Michigan girl. To being a part of such incredible things. Growing up, do you have visions and dreams this big or does life sort of just open one door at a time and we end up here? You know, I loved where I grew up. I grew up in Michigan. I went to high school with 100 other kids. I was a first woman in my family to go to college and I always knew I wanted to get out. I didn't know what it meant. I didn't know I'd have an opportunity to live in China or California or have the opportunity to be a part of a brand like Genesis. But I always knew there was something more for me. So yeah, kind of. Kind of. I was reading, you know, you've shared a story that at a young age that you wanted to be an astronaut. I did. But for me, the most interesting part about that

3:04is the willingness at a young age to dream and think that. More so than the idea of I want to maybe float in zero gravity. But the, I don't know, growing up an environment that lets you think of something so wild could be possible. I mean, was that the environment you came from? Yes and no. My dad always told me I could do anything. I put my mind to you know, my dad would always say, hey, I'm not smartest, but I'm always the hardest worker. And he said, if you work the hardest, there is nothing that you can't do. And when a father tells their daughter something, the rest of the world can say something completely different. But you believe, you believe what your father told you. And I still believe that to this day, whatever I put my mind to, if I work hard, I can do it. I think that's such an important message for so many people. You know, that it's, I'm sure there's opportunities that come along in that. But at the end of the day, it's about putting in the time

4:06the effort and being prepared for when that opportunity shows up. Exactly. Because when that moment calls and if you're not prepared, has that been sort of you in life? I mean, as these different opportunities come and doors open, that you want to be prepared for whatever it is that might come? I really push myself to say yes. As much as my dad said, you can do anything you want to do, my mom was the one saying, stay home, don't take chances. You're safe here. And it was an incredible combination of the two. But I always try to say yes. And I always try to do things that really scare me. Like moving to China, scared me, scared me. Could imagine. But when you say yes to things, you never know what can come your way. Yeah. And you know, when Ted called me and I know you know Ted, my boss. Yeah, he's what a great dude. When he called me to come to Genesis, you know, he said, I don't know if I could get you, but.

5:07And I said, maybe you can. Let's talk. And then I had the opportunity to fly to California to meet with him, to meet with our global CEO Jose Munoz to see vehicles like this. And the yes was easy. Wow. There's a quote that I want to know if you're still familiar with. And I believe it goes, winners never quit. Yeah. What does that mean to you? Where does that come from? That's where my dad, when I was 12, he gave me a necklace. It was a heart. And on the back of it, it was inscribed. And it said winners never quit. And it was the full idea of resilience. And whatever comes at you, you can't, you can't handle what comes at you, but you can handle the way you react to it. And you know, like everyone's like, my life has not been easy. But you can always handle your reaction. You can be kind. You can be generous. You can be thoughtful. But most important, you can be kind.

6:09Even when things are really tough. Wow. Was that sort of words of inspiration from your dad or even at that age 12, was there for any reason you needed that message? Or was it just something to sort of help shape you as you go full? You know, my dad raised me to be very tough. He started me at five years old in Japanese Shodokan Karate. Wow. So I did Karate for eight years. And he said, this is for discipline. And I always wanted to be a gymnast. But he said discipline first, then we'll talk. And so when I was 10, I finally talked him into taking gymnastics classes. And it made me really want it. And once I had it, really, really appreciate it. So he was always inspirational to me. He still is to this day. He's 84. He works out every single day. He's just, he's just an incredible man. And he has reason that I feel safe to take some of the chances that I have taken. But when I was never quit, I wish I still had that necklace.

7:11I don't know what happened to it. But it lives around free in my brain. Wow. That's incredible. I mean, you know, something like that is so simple, but so meaningful. And, you know, as I kind of look through, you know, your career. And even if we kind of hurry through things like, you know, college, is it aerospace engineering degree? And then followed by a master's in engineering. Oh, yeah. And very quickly after that. I was a nerd, Dan. A nerd? A nerd. Yes. Self-proclaimed. Yes. Were you also called a nerd or just that's a name you get. Well, I was voted most scientific in my senior class. I was really hoping to be voted best dress, but I lost that one and got most scientific and most likely to succeed. So I think other people saw me as a nerd as well. Which I'll be honest, I've called myself a nerd for many things over the years. So there's a connection we have in nerding out on our things, on our niches. But I look at, you know, very quickly,

8:13you are working for some of the biggest automotive brands in the world, legacy brands, you know, fairly quickly, you know, into your career. But the part I found interesting was the degrees of change that came along the way from engineering into sales and the data and all these things was, how do you, how do you do that? Is it just from saying yes? Is it from saying, you know what, I want to learn all these specific things. Like what leads you into such sort of a diverse portfolio in your resume along the way, you know, pretty much start your whole career? I think it was my hunger to learn the business and also to find really where I fit and where my skills could add the most value. Yeah. And so when I went into aerospace school, I really wanted to be an astronaut. And I remember my senior design class, Colonel Bolden from the Hubble Space Telescope mission was my sponsor. And he's like, Amy, what do you want to be? And I said, I want to be just like you, I want to be an astronaut.

9:14And he looked at me and said, well, Amy, that's not a career. That's something you do once in your life. And, you know, my dreams were corrupt. And I said, what do you mean? It's not a career. So I kind of re-looked at things and that's when I made the move into automotive. But I did start as an aerospace engineer, working in the aerodynamics department, making the vehicles more fuel efficient by improving their coefficient of drag and also doing computational fluid dynamics. So it was really exciting, but it wasn't what I loved. What I love is anticipating what the consumer needs before they even know that they want it. And what I found, once you got into business, is doing that was something that strategists do and marketers do. And that's how I kind of found my way to strategy in the marketing. I'm curious, you know, in that moment, sort of having that conversation, being hit with the sort of reality of what this idea or this dream really means. Like, is it crushing? Is it sort of like an idea or a dream just left you?

10:18How do you sort of patch together a new dream when the one you had was sort of taken away? It was so crushing. And he said, well, and also, if you want to be an astronaut, you need 5,000 hours of flight. And you can only get that in the Navy or the Air Force. So what it made me do, she marched down to the Navy office and said, I want to sign up. And they said, well, we'd like nine years of your life. And I said, well, OK, if I go in as a pilot, I want to come out as a pilot. And at that time, women couldn't fly fighters. So the best I could have done was fly helicopters if I would have been top of my class. And they said, well, no, we don't guarantee that. Because it was wartime. It was desert storm. And so I made the decision to, I had an offer from Boeing. I had an offer from Lockheed, General Motors Ford. And then this opportunity to go to Navy pilot school. And I chose Ford. Wow. I mean, when life says this dream is not for you. That happens a lot, Dan. It sure does.

11:18And I think it's a lot of life. It happens to so many people. It does. And I think the most important thing is what you were speaking about is the yes attitude, or the yes and, and the OK. And I think so many times in life, a lot of us are set back. We don't know how do I put it together. My identity is now missing. And I think that yes attitude is such a beautiful way to approach life. Is that still a part of you now? Or was that just sort of that younger early on version of Amy? I think it's gotten stronger as I get older, because you do have those full crushing moments. And you do have those moments where you don't know if you can get off the floor. And you say, yeah, yeah, I can. And I'm going to do this. And I'm going to get up. And I'm going to start again. And that's the beauty of life. You can start again. It doesn't matter if you're 20, if you're 30, if you're 40. Before I moved to California, I used a lecture

12:20at Ross Business School at U of M. That's where I went to college. And I tell the students, make a decision. It becomes the right decision until you get more information. And that's just wisdom. I showed them my career journey from an aerospace engineer to a CMO to a president of a company in China. And said, what you study today is likely not what you'll do tomorrow. So don't be stressed. Always have a goal. But know that that can change. And that's not failure. That's wisdom. There's another quote that I'm curious if this still is something that you keep in your life. A ship is safe in the harbor, but that's not what it's made for. Where does that come from? And it's one of my favorite quotes. And it's the thing I tell myself when a big opportunity presents itself. Or when I'm in a space where I'm no longer learning, a ship is safe in the harbor, but that's not what ships are made for.

13:21The rough seas is really what makes. That's what the ship is made for. It's made for the rough seas. And when you go out into those rough seas, you just never know what's going to come your way. I was at the Venice Film Festival two weekends ago, premiering a film that Genesis presented. I never saw my life in Venice with Maggie Gyllenhaal, Anna Red Carpet, presenting a film that just want to film festival. It's just wild and an opportunity that a small, a small-ton girl from Michigan never saw coming. And I'm very, very grateful, very grateful. It's unbelievable. I know. Crazy. And I think, again, it's this idea of saying yes, and following life and following opportunity and being prepared for opportunity. I feel like it's so simple to sort of read over your trajectory. And if you kind of take the simple highlights, it looks perfect. It looks smooth. It looks like, wow, you went from this cool title

14:23to this cool title and this cool opportunity and this position and this thing. But I have a strong feeling that the actual road wasn't as smooth as the highlight reel. It looks like, where are there moments where you're like, what are we doing? Like, literally, how do I end up here? I'm screwing up. I don't know. Do you second-guess yourself? Like, take me there. Yes, yes, yes. Yes, sometimes you look in the mirror and you say, can I really do this? Or am I over my skis? The other quote I use a lot, especially with my team now, we have a very small team is, no one's coming to save us. We have to do this. We have to do the research. We have to learn. We have to benchmark other brands. We have to be thoughtful. No one's coming to save us. No one's telling us what the next step is. We have to figure it out. And we have to do that together. And we have to do that collaboratively. That's how you grow a brand-like genesis

15:24when you're a small team. Is you do it collaboratively? And you really, really focus on learning. And I'm old. I've been in the industry a really long time. But I'm still learning. I mean, this whole new AI age, what it means for us, how we should be using it, what an agentic agent means, why it's important to our consumers. Using Son Nim, I know Ted talked to you about that. The idea of honored guests, using that as a marketer, making sure digitally when we're showing up, we're showing up, treating our customers like an honored guest. It's just a whole new learning period. So consistent learning. And knowing that you are not the smartest person in the room is something that really goes a long way. Learning, I mean, is how do you learn? Is it watching, doing, you need to read it, internalize it, or use the type of person who has to write it down once, and I know it, how do you bring all this into you? I'm very much a visual learner.

16:25But I really love podcasts. I listen to a lot of podcasts. I don't read a lot for fun. I read a lot to learn. Sure. And I listen a lot to learn. I find brain development very interesting. Fitness very interesting. I love the idea of longevity. But then I also learn from my job. I spend a lot of time focusing on AI. If I get invited to a conference that's really going to add value to me like from a Google or an Amazon or a meta, I'm always the first one to sign up. I always tell our partners, I want to be your first call when you have a new technology. I might say no, but I'll probably say yes. And so I like to beta, and I like to pilot. We talk on our team that if we're not failing, we're not trying hard enough. And because I'm a smaller brand, we are a smaller brand. If we fail, it's OK. If our sister brother brand Hyundai does, that's not OK.

17:26They're a big brand. We're small. We can test, we can learn. And then when things work, we can scale. And when things don't, we can pivot very, very quickly. So I like this size of brand. It's very comfortable for me. What was that a part of your decision to come back to automotive? Was it the brand that drew you in? Was it your relationship with Ted? How did you say, I'm in automotive? I've left automotive. I want to come back. How do you make that decision? I missed it. I really missed it. I missed having a vehicle, having a machine. I love an engine. I've now fallen in love with electric vehicles, which I never thought I would say. I love automotive. I love the business. I love the retailers, the dealers. And I love the fact that it's the second biggest purchase a consumer makes. And we have to earn that. And so what brought me to Genesis, number one was Ted, because he's an incredible leader and an amazing human.

18:26But number two was the value exchange with the consumer. The content in the vehicle. We give more than we ask for. Whether it's the vehicle that we're producing, the types of leather, the content and the vehicle, the engineering in the vehicle, or when somebody comes to one of our events, the value exchange is where we're giving more than we're taking. And I love that. My number one rule is, and it always has been the best product wins. And I believe Genesis is the best product in the luxury space. And I can say that feel great about it. You mentioned very early on in our conversation about this idea of understanding, probably going to miss quote you right now, but what people are going to want, or something to that effect. How would you do crystal ball? Like, you know what I mean? Or how do you figure that out? I mean, it's simple to be like, well, you people are thirst. Do you probably want a drink?

19:26But when you leave here, I don't know what you're going to want. I just got you the drink and we're fine and let's move on. How do you imagine, and sort of that forward imaginative direction? I think there are a couple things. I think it's very similar to what you do and what makes you unique. You take time to understand who you're going to talk to. You knew quotes. You knew winners never quit. That's not easy. That's thoughtful. And I think that's what makes you special in what makes your podcast so successful. I mean, 100 million. It's incredible when I was learning about you. That's what we do with our customers. That's what the Korean engineering team does. And they're very much yes before no. We're going to show you a product today that does not have the traditional B pillar. Yes. That B pillar is their first structure. The engineering team in Korea has been able to find a way to move that. So people get in and out of the vehicle easier. Most companies would say no.

20:27Vehicles have been around for 150 years. They all have a B pillar. Arasus Hidden. It's a yes before no. Wow. It's very special. I fit very well at this company. I think I do. I hope they think I do. Yeah. But it seems like it. I mean, I've had some wonderful interactions with different members of the Genesis team. And of course, being out at the Genesis invitational and here at the president's cup, I have found that everybody in your team, the Genesis team and surrounding and other departments have been wonderful to be around to work with. Is that sort of, OK, is it choosing those people and bringing them in? Or does the culture create that? Is it cart horsepower? How do we get there? Because it's very noticeable and wonderful to be around. Ted has an ethos. He says, how we win matters. Yes, that's such a wonderful quote. It really is. And that's very much our culture. And every day isn't perfect.

21:30People, if they won the lottery tomorrow, they wouldn't come to work. But our culture is sunnim. It's treating people like honored guests, whether that is our customer, our retailers, or the people that we work with. And I know I feel very, very lucky to be a part of the team. I think Ted feels very lucky to be a part of the team. And I hope the rest of the team feels that way. I do love to come to work. I love to come to events like this. Steph, who's on my team, she's on the experiential team. I said, are you writing over with me this morning? She's like, no, I'm going to be there to receive you. Now, how incredible is that? I'm being received. It just makes me feel so special. Yeah. And in turn, then you pass that environment along and so on. And so on, it becomes, I would imagine contagious within.

22:30That's so interesting. I mean, as I sort of ponder it all, I feel like there's both sides of you that I'm picking up on, where it is instinct. It is something where you have a gut nature for a lot of the stuff. But yet, so much what I read and learned about you is you obsess over data in numbers and how things work. How do you balance in between the numbers say this, but my gut says that? When do you choose who is? Early in my career, I was not humble. Early in my career, I had a lot of data. Yeah. But I also had a lot of gut. And I remember when I moved to China, I had no gut because I didn't know the market. I didn't know the language. I didn't know the consumer. I had to listen. I had to rely more on the data, but even more on the humans

23:33who had the gut that I didn't have. And it brought a lot of humility, which I'm very grateful for. No one is the smartest person in the room. And sometimes you need to learn that. I learned that when I moved to China. And I mean, I like to think I'm a much better leader and I'm a much better teammate because I've learned that. But it's very much in the culture now. The culture of Genesis is a very humble brand. It doesn't matter if you're talking to our executive chairman or if you're talking to our global CEO or if you're talking to someone like me. It's a very humble brand. And we believe that we need to earn the consumer. Are you good at being uncomfortable? Yeah. You're OK with that. I love it. Do you? I love being uncomfortable. And I love living in chaos. I love trying to fix things. I love a good problem.

24:35It's where I'm most comfortable. I'm not sure what that says about me, Dan. I think, of course, that's how you can say yes. Because you don't fear the uncomfortable side that might be waiting over there. And I think potentially a lot of people, maybe myself included, some of the yeses I'm resistant to are because I fear the unknown and what's over there and how, man, I have my spot where I can shine. But if I go over there, then I might not be shining as bright and I won't feel like I'm doing as good of a job. But yet, I think kind of what I'm taking away from this is that over there might be where I learn the most. It will be. Wow. And do you ever regret saying yes? I mean, when you really look back on things, do you ever regret it? I mean, I think that's such a great point of perspective is those hardest moments ended up being the most rewarding. I mean, you went to culinary school.

25:36Any regrets? Not a bit. No. And though at this point in time, I'm not cooking professionally. I'm not hosting my cooking show anymore. I wouldn't be here without that. Yeah. And so I get to sort of look at those moments and with zero regret, say, I don't know what life would have been like had I said no to any of those. Looking at Genesis, you talk about it being a young brand and a brand that, I don't know, I feel like has more opportunity because the expectations aren't as set in ancient stone. And it's allowing, I don't know, and it's from the outside. I'm telling you exactly what I'm wrong, but this is my thoughts, is that it's more of a blank canvas. And it's saying, who are we? Who do we want to be as a brand? How do we want to connect? Because we don't have to live up to something that is 100 years old.

26:37And we get to decide who we are, who we are, hasn't been decided for us. I'm curious, when you come in and you step into the chief marketing officer role of something that maybe is not as defined as some of these older legacy brands, do you thrive in that where you go, okay, let's see what we want to do. Let's see the direction we want to take this. It's hard, right? Because there's so much opportunity. I remember early on in the job, I went to meet with our chief designer and I knew him through some friends and he's worked at other companies. His name's John and we said, John, what makes designing a genesis different from any other vehicle that you've designed? And he said, we are not tethered to legacy. We are untethered. So we can do what's right for the consumer right now at this moment. And based on that, we developed a brand campaign called blank canvas. It really is a beautiful thing.

27:38But you do have to pick a North Star. And then you have to stay true to that North Star. Imagine a brand that is, that built the Korean economy. The Hyundai, the Genesis brand built the economy. Everybody in Korean knows Hyundai. They know Genesis. In the US, nobody knows Genesis. Well, almost nobody. About half people know what Genesis is. And so that's a real opportunity. And so we are a blank canvas and our tagline is welcome to Genesis. So we want everyone to feel welcome in our home. Yes, we are luxury, but we're a very inclusive luxury brand. I think that's a great thing. It doesn't feel walled off. That makes sense. All right, we've got to get into the GV90. It's sitting directly behind you. Before we got going, I was poking around in there. In a few moments, if you're up for it,

28:38I'd love to jump in there with you. And you kind of show me around. Like I said, it's been all over my social feeds. Like this thing is like blowing up on my tiptock. And as this was coming together today, I was like, oh, I'm going to get to get up close with this thing. But it feels like a massive leap forward. And I don't know. I just is like in that process, when ideas like this are coming together, removing the B pillar, doing these rotating seats from the front and creating these conversational spaces than that is that shown to you after the fact? And now you go out and figure out how to share this with the world. Or are you involved during those idea processes as this stuff is coming together? Well, we knew it was coming. Yeah. They told us it was coming. And the person in me with a lot of experience that used to be an engineer said, there's no way. Yeah. That's never going to make it to production. But it did. And every milestone, it just got better and better and better.

29:41And not to say there weren't issues. There's always issues. But the fact that it made it to production, something so incredibly difficult, but also so incredibly interesting for the consumer. And the coach doors in the fact that the B pillar is hidden, that's just one of the innovations. The front seats swivel. Not when you're driving, of course, but when you're stationary and say you want to just hang out with your friends of front seat swivel, there's a table. You can hang out. There's a cooler where you could put your lemonade or whatever you're drinking. The moonroof actually is electrochromatic. So at a touch of a button, you can just the sun's gone. There's a roof airbag. So one of the big issues in world overs is people getting ejected through the moonroofs. This is a first in world airbag that deploys in the roof over the moonroof, so you won't be ejected. There's just so much I could continue to go on and on. There's a cinema mode.

30:43It's just really an incredible piece of engineering. Well, if you're up for it, what do you think about jumping in and you show me around? Let's do it. Oh, OK. So this is the open vehicle. I mean, think about that. This vehicle is actually safer than a vehicle with the traditional B pillar. This is a mode. Now, you cannot drive like this. Say you're just hanging out somewhere, waiting somewhere. This is an opportunity for you to just hang with your friends. And I don't know, you want to try that? You know what? I get the sense of welcoming. That's the brand. When that opened, I just felt like, I should get in. It would like me to. Back here, we have a refrigerator. So depending on what you'd like to put back in there, that is a full refrigerator. The moonroof. This is electric chromatic. So you can see half of it's opaque and half of it's clear. We have cinema mode. So you can see the big screen in the front. So literally everything dims. And when you're not driving, you can watch a movie.

31:44It really is an incredible, incredible machine. Oh, yes. Come to me. You know, you get done playing 18. Here we go. Oh, I'm telling you, Amy. I mean, this is my kind of relaxing. Thank you for giving me a little shade up top. Look at the stand. All of a sudden, one, two, three, four, five, set, heated and cooled cup holders. Pre-conditioning for you. Legitimately. Like yours is very chilled and mine is completely warm. I mean, if you're going to do it, do it well. It's the genesis way. That's it. Good night, Dan. Amy, this has been incredible. Thank you so much for taking the time. What a fun day. What a fun event. And what a fun story you have. This has been very cool. And thank you very much. Thank you. What a pleasure. Well, folks, that is it for the Dan Evans show. Right here at the president's cuff. Right here in the middle of all the fun action that Genesis has going on within the president's cuff. What a cool day. I can't believe it. We got to get to some more golf and a whole lot more fun.

32:46Right here on the Dan Evans show.