Leon van der Merwe, Vice President Toyota Motor Europe

Leon van der Merwe (he/him) is Vice President for Circular Economy at Toyota Motor Europe (TME).

He oversees TME’s Circular Economy function which was established in 2023 with the key objective of introducing the 5R approach (re-design, re-circulate, retain, re-purpose, recycle) to the overall business model, allowing Toyota to maximise the end-to-end value of its products.

Leon joined Toyota Motor Europe in 2014 as Vice President for After Sales, managing TME’s After Sales business and service parts supply chain. In 2017 he transformed TME’s After Sales function into a Value Chain organisation, implementing the vehicle life-time value strategy.

In 2019 Leon was appointed Vice President for Supply Chain, where he created TME’s first consolidated supply chain function. Consequently, Leon’s responsibility covered production control, inbound production parts, finished vehicle and service parts logistics.

Before joining Toyota, Leon assumed his first leadership role in 1999 as Managing Director at Kwik Fit South Africa. In 2002 he moved to Kwik Fit Europe as Group Director, managing operations in 8 European countries. In 2011 Leon joined Bridgestone as Vice President for European retail. He was also a member of Bridgestone’s Global Marketing and Retail Committee. 

Leon was born in South Africa and is married with three children.