Toyota Announces Executive, Organizational And Personnel Changes
November 28, 2017 by ToyotaTOKYO, Nov. 28, 2017—Today, Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) announced its plans to change its executive lineup and revise its organizational structure in January 2018 to further strengthen cooperation among companies of the Toyota Group and boost business innovation. The overall changes aim to: •Concentrate the capabilities of the Toyota Group companies and appoint the right people among a diversified workforce with high levels of expertise from within and outside Toyota to the right positions. •Renew the roles of executive vice presidents, establish the new post of 'fellow,' and move forward the timing of executive changes to transform the roles and awareness of executives and to accelerate management oversight. •Transform the company structure into one that makes possible decision-making close to customers and close to where the action takes place. Among the executive and organizational changes announced today, executives in North America at Toyota Motor North America (TMNA) and Toyota Research Institute (TRI) were included. The following executive changes will take effect on January 1, 2018: Tetsuo Ogawa has been promoted to Senior Managing Officer at Toyota Motor Corporation. Ogawa will continue his role in Plano, Texas, as TMNA executive vice president and chief administrative officer where he is responsible for managing all North American corporate resources and product support. Mike Sweers has been promoted to Executive General Manager of CV Company, an in-house company at TMC responsible primarily for commercial vehicles, and will continue to concurrently serve as chief engineer. Until the announcement, Sweers focused on light truck platforms including those found on Tundra and Sequoia for North America. However, his newly appointed position will put him in a global role on IMV-platform. Currently, Sweers is on assignment in Japan from TMNA R&D. Dr. Gill Pratt has been appointed as a 'fellow,' a new post that was established for executives to contribute to the management of the company with their high level of expertise in specific technical domains, within the Advanced R&D and Engineering Company at TMC. Dr. Pratt continues to serve as CEO of TRI, established in 2015 with a $1 billion investment. Under his direction, TRI focuses on the future of mobility by applying techniques from areas such as artificial intelligence and machine learning. Prior to joining Toyota, Dr. Pratt served as a program manager in the Defense Sciences Office at the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) from January 2010 through August 2015.
