Toyota to replace Toyoda as CEO

TOKYO

Toyota named Koji Sato president and CEO on Jan. 26, in a surprise reshuffle that sees third-generation chief executive Akio Toyoda step aside to become board chairman of the world’s top-selling automaker.

The Japanese automaker said Sato, 53, would also become operating officer when the changes to its executive structure take effect on April 1.

Sato, previously chief branding officer, and president of Toyota’s luxury Lexus brand, is taking the helm at a time of major upheaval for the industry, with electric vehicles now center-stage.

He is the same age as Toyoda was in 2009 when he became the company’s youngest president, after the global financial crash.

“He has youth, and like-minded colleagues, I expect this team to go beyond the limits that I cannot break through,” Toyoda told reporters.

“To promote change in an era in which the future is unpredictable, the head of management must continue to stand on the front lines. For that, stamina, energy and passion are indispensable.”

Toyoda, 66, is the grandson of company founder Kiichiro Toyoda. His father Shoichiro Toyoda also led Toyota, in the 1980s and ‘90s.

He is known as a charismatic leader, having steered the group through a quality-control scandal that saw him apologize before the U.S. Congress, and supply chain chaos caused by Japan’s 2011 quake and tsunami.

More recently, he has worked to strengthen Toyota’s ambitions in the key electric vehicle sector.

Sato has worked for Toyota since graduating with a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering in 1992.

“I’m an engineer and have long been engaged with developing cars. I love making cars,” Sato said.

Toyoda will replace 76-year-old Takeshi Uchiyamada as board chair. Uchiyamada was chief engineer of the team that developed the hugely popular Prius, the world’s first mass-produced hybrid model.