Hankook exec participates in White House roundtable

WASHINGTON—Byeong Jin Lee, Hankook Tire America Corp. president, is among executives from a dozen companies invited to the White House on May 20 for a “SelectUSA Roundtable” to discuss foreign capital investment in the U.S.

President Barack Obama, Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett and National Economic Council Director Jeff Zients will host a roundtable at the White House with companies investing in the U.S., according to a White House news release.

These companies will discuss the key reasons they chose to invest and hire in the U.S. and what industry and government can do together to bring more job-creating investment to the U.S.

Lee's meeting with Obama follows a meeting April 25 in Seoul, South Korea, where Hankook Tire Co. Inc. Chairman Cho Yang-rai was part of a roundtable hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce in South Korea.

The White House at that time said Hankook's decision to invest $800 million to build a tire plant in Clarksville, Tenn., was representative of actions spurred by the Obama administration's “SelectUSA” initiative, an effort to cut red tape and support companies considering investment to create jobs in the U.S.

At the same time, Obama plans to announce a second SelectUSA Summit to be held next spring in Washington, with more than 2,500 guests expected.

The White House credits SelectUSA with assisting in winning more than $18 billion in job-creating business investments for the U.S. in 17 states and territories.

Other companies invited to today's White House summit include:

• Ericsson Inc., a Swedish multinational corporation, involved in communications technology, software and services for telecommunications operators;

• Ford Motor Co.;

• GlobalFoundries Inc., the second largest contract chip manufacturer in the world;

• K'NEX Brands;

• Lufthansa Group;

• Novozymes A/S of Denmark;

• Richelieu Inc.;

• Safran Group of France;

• Umicore USA, a Belgian global materials technology and recycling group; and

• Zurich North America, the regional subsidiary of Switzerland's Zurich Insurance Group.