Toyota announces reinforced Management of European Operations
Following Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC)’s shift to a regional management structure, Toyota Motor Europe (TME) announced today its new organisation designed to bring the company closer to its customers while ensuring faster decision-making.Didier Leroy becomes President and CEO of TME and Chief Regional Officer of TMC for Europe, effective April 1st, 2011.
In addition to his TME responsibilities in RandD, manufacturing, sales & marketing and after-sales, he will coordinate the strategy of TMC operations based in greater Europe, including Toyota's design studio in Sophia Antipolis, France (ED2), Toyota Motorsport GmbH (based in Cologne, Germany), and Toyota’s financial services units.
Toyota's shift to a region-based management also implies that the Japan-based business planning function for Europe will be placed under the responsibility of TME.
The management of TME's European head office functions will also be reinforced.
• Hiroyuki Ochiai, Executive Vice President, will oversee all manufacturing functions and operations under TME’s new scope.
• Masahisa Nagata will be appointed Executive Vice President in charge of Research & Development and Purchasing. His role will be to strengthen TME's position as a global planning centre for cars in the smaller market segments (A, B, C). Masahisa Nagata was previously General Manager of the Tokyo Engineering Division in TMC.
Other changes, effective April 1st, 2011:
• Takashi Karasawa, TME Vice President in charge of Human Resources and Business Services, will also assume the responsibility of Chief Financial Officer following the return of Tomoya Ishida to Japan.
• Daniele Schillaci will take full responsibility of Toyota France as President and CEO, directly reporting to Didier Leroy, President and CEO of TME, following the return of Hiroshi Ito to Japan.