Toyota Shakes Up North and South American Leadership

2714

NEW YORK — Toyota Motor North America Inc. today announced executive changes across Toyota’s North and South American affiliate companies, which are effective as of April 1.

These executive appointments are intended to give greater autonomy and more local control to regional executives and managers so they can provide superior customer-focused products and services. The moves also advance Toyota’s efforts to integrate top regional talent into its global leadership team in order to best meet the needs of customers around the world.

Akio Toyoda, president of Toyota Motor Corp., said, “these changes will help us to achieve sustainable growth and realize our global vision by giving more responsibility to each region, including our North and South American operations, so that they may develop and deliver ever better products and offer the best service to our customers.”

The changes announced today include:

James Lentz, currently president and CEO of Toyota Motor Sales is named CEO of North America region and president and chief operating officer of Toyota Motor North America

Kazuo Ohara , managing officer, TMC and executive vice president, Lexus International, will become chief executive officer and president of TMS, with responsibility for Toyota’s North America sales, service and marketing operations, reporting to Lentz.

Osamu Nagata, deputy chief officer, External Affairs group, and managing officer, TMC, is named chief executive officer and president of TEMA, where he will lead Toyota’s North American manufacturing and engineering operations, also reporting to Lentz.

Steve St. Angelo, having served Toyota North America as executive vice president, TEMA, and senior vice president of TMA, is named chief executive officer, Latin America and Caribbean Region.  He remains a managing officer of TMC. Based in Sao Paulo, Brazil, St. Angelo will be chairman of Toyota do Brazil and will oversee all of Toyota’s Latin America and Caribbean affiliates. He will report to Mitsuhisa Kato and Yasumori Ihara, executive vice presidents and members of the board, TMC.

Mark S. Templin, group vice president and general manager – Lexus Division, TMS, and general manager, Lexus Product Marketing Planning Division, TMC, is named managing officer and executive vice president of Lexus International, where he will lead Lexus global operations from Toyota City, Japan. With this appointment, Templin becomes the first non-Japanese executive to oversee a Toyota division within the company’s global headquarters in Japan. In this new role, he will report to Kiyotaka Ise, senior managing officer and president of Lexus International.

Real Tanguay, chairman, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada Inc., North American chief quality officer and senior managing officer of TMC, will be named advisor, TMC and chairman, TCI. He remains chairman of TMMC and president of Canadian Autoparts Toyota Inc., which are overseen by TEMA. Given Tanguay’s enhanced focus on growing the Canadian market and overall coordination of Canadian operations, the role of chief quality officer will be re-assigned at a later date.

Robert S. Carter, senior vice president – automotive operations, TMS, will have added responsibility for the Lexus Division, aligning sales, service, marketing, customer initiatives, vehicle distribution and parts operations for Toyota, Lexus and Scion under one executive. He will report to Ohara.

Jeffrey Bracken, vice president, sales, Toyota Division, is named group vice president and general manager – Lexus Division, TMS, reporting to Carter.  Mr. Bracken will be responsible for all sales, marketing, customer service and dealer operations for Lexus in the U.S.

Yoshimi Inaba, chairman of TMS, is named executive chairman of TMS. He remains executive advisor to TMC.

Mark Hogan , president of Dewey Investments LLC, is appointed as one of three new outside board members of TMC. Hogan is the first American to be named as an outside board member of the company.

Shigeki Terashi , managing officer, TMC, president and COO, TMA and president and CEO, TEMA, is named senior managing officer, TMC, where he will be chief officer, Corporate Planning Division and chief officer, Product and Business Planning Division.

Kazuhiro Miyauchi, managing officer, TMC, senior vice president, TMA, and executive vice president – Purchasing and Supplier Engineering Development, TEMA, will become chief officer, Production Control Group, TMC.

Hiroyuki Fukui, senior vice president and chief coordinating officer, TMS, is named managing officer, TMC, and named chairman of Toyota Motor Manufacturing Indonesia.