Kia Australia CEO Damien Meredith is stepping away from the top job, which feels a bit losing a limb.
Kia Australia says Meredith will move into an advisory role from 1 June 2026, with current COO Dennis Piccoli taking over as CEO. It is a tidy handover on paper, but twelve years at the helm of a car company is not a neat little footnote. In modern automotive life, that is practically a geological period.
Meredith joined Kia Australia in May 2014. Back then, Kia still had to explain itself to buyers who remembered nasty cabins, bland styling, and the sort of brand image that sat in the corner at parties clutching a warm chardonnay. Since then, the local arm has become one of the market’s strongest performers, even nabbing 2nd spot on the sales chart, albeit briefly. Sales rose from 28,005 in 2014 to a record 82,105 in 2025. That is a 193% rise,an impressive number by any measure.
ABOVE: Damien Meredith and modern Kia
Seven Years Changed Everything
The headline move was Kia’s seven-year warranty. It arrived mere months after Meredith joined and did more than make a warranty brochure tickler. It made nervous buyers feel as though someone had put an arm around their shoulder and said, “It will be fine, love.” In a market where trust is harder to earn than it is to lose, the market first warranty gave buyers permission to entre vous and rapid growth followed.
Dealer relations helped too. Press releases love to mumble about culture and strategy, then wander off to boil the kettle, but Kia’s growth was not conjured from incense and LinkedIn adjectives. The cars improved, the warranty gave buyers confidence, and the dealer network had a clear story to sell. Simple. Annoyingly rare, but simple.
The Badge Grew Up
Meredith also oversaw the 2021 brand change, when Kia binned the old oval badge and for a more modern logo and “Movement That Inspires” line. Some people still read the logo as “KN”, but it was a subtle makeover that signalled a period, a break between the old and the new. Kia wanted to be seen as a design-led, technology-led, proper car company, not the bargain basement country camper.
The Australian Open partnership was part of that clever spin. Kia has squeezed more showroom value out of (tennis) balls and sunburnt spectators than most brands manage from entire Olympic sponsorships. Repeated exposure works, ask anyone who still thinks of Kia whenever Rafael Nadal appears within twenty metres of a camera.
Dennis Piccoli Takes Over
Dennis Piccoli moves from Head of Sales to COO, then into the CEO chair from 1 June. He has worked across General Motors, Hyundai, and Kia, so he is a fully paid up member of the car company appreciation society. More importantly, he has worked with Meredith for more than a decade across two OEMs, so this is less velvet-curtain reveal and more relay batten handover.
Meredith said care has been the most important word in business and life. His point was that motivated people who care, plus a dealer network that feels heard, made the job rewarding. He now stays connected in an advisory role while Piccoli jumps in the driver seat.
In the face of extremely stiff competition from new Chinese brands, a weakening passenger market and the fact that the Australian automotive landscape is teetering on a generational change, Kia has stiff headwinds coming. Kia is among the very few OEMs to keep a strong, if reduced, passenger car range, a handsome family of EVs, and an interesting ute strategy so is well placed to ride out the tides. The brand is in a far better place than it was in 2014, but the next phase will not be gentle. The clever decisions to axe slow models ruthlessly, and freshen models regularly, has made Kia’s range new and modern.
Meredith leaves the CEO role with Kia Australia transformed. The management team took a middling car maker and made it a juggernaut. Damien will be remembered for a seven-year warranty, products that gave the warranty something to stand behind, and the sales growth that can’t be understated. Piccoli inherits a brand with momentum, which is both a gift and a curse. Expectations are now rather higher than they used to be.
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Alan Zurvas is the founder and editor of Gay Car Boys, Australia's leading LGBTQI+ automotive publication. Before launching GCB in 2008, Alan's automotive writing was published in SameSame.com.au and the Star Observer. With over 16 years of hands-on car reviewing experience, Alan brings an honest, irreverent voice to every review — championing value and innovation over brand loyalty.
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