Stuart Countess is the Chief Operating Officer (COO) for Kia Motors Manufacturing Georgia, Inc. (KMMG). In this position, Countess is responsible for the production scheduling, materials and logistical operations, and manufacturing operations of the Kia Telluride, Sorento and Optima vehicles.

He previously served as the Chief Administrative Officer for KMMG, overseeing the Human Resources, Legal, Environmental Health and Safety, Team Relations, Public Relations and Corporate Services departments. In addition, he has served as Vice President of Quality overseeing the overall vehicle quality for the KMMG plant, including supplier quality, process quality, customer satisfaction, warranty and ISO/TS certifications for Business Management Systems. Countess joined KMMG in 2008 as the Senior Manager of the General Assembly Shop.

Countess came to KMMG from Mercedes Benz U.S. International in Vance, Ala. where, for more than 13 years, he served in numerous leadership positions within production and quality departments, including supplier quality manager, quality manager and assembly manager. In those roles, he was responsible for vehicle assembly, supplier quality, overall vehicle quality, process quality, customer satisfaction and warranty.

Before joining Mercedes, Countess was the senior supplier quality engineer for AUTECS, a tier 1 supplier for Nissan and Subaru. Countess led the development of a supplier quality program that included localization of parts within the U.S. Prior to that, he served as quality engineering administrator for Hughes Georgia in LaGrange, a division of Hughes Aircraft. There he was responsible for quality related activities of the Maverick missile program.

He is a graduate of the University of Alabama with a Bachelor of Science (BS) in Electrical Engineering and received his Master of Business Administration (MBA) from LaGrange College.

Countess and his wife, Dana, live in LaGrange, Ga. and have four children: Laura, Thomas, Jac and Anna.