By Yoko Kubota
TOKYO--Toyota Motor Corp. tapped a foreigner as an executive
vice president for the first time in the company's nearly
eight-decade history, in an attempt by the Japanese auto maker to
shake up the ranks of its largely uniform senior management.
Didier Leroy, a 57-year-old French national who currently
oversees Toyota's European business, will become executive vice
president in charge of developed markets, Toyota said Wednesday.
The company also named its first female managing officer, and its
first African-American managing officer.
The appointments aren't just significant for the world's
best-selling auto maker, they also represent a shift for Japan,
where top posts at major corporations are mostly held by Japanese
men, though recently some companies have brought in more foreign
and female executives.
Faced with an aging domestic population and the realities of the
global marketplace, Japanese companies have come under pressure to
diversify their ranks in recent years.
Much of Toyota's prosperity today is due to its overseas
operations. Toyota, Japan's biggest company by profits and market
capitalization, sells around 83% of its vehicles outside of Japan
and manufactures around two-thirds of its vehicles overseas. Its
biggest rivals are General Motors Co. and Germany's Volkswagen
AG.
But Toyota still has many deeply-rooted corporate traditions
such as a seniority system and a higher management structure that
is dominated by Japanese men. Akio Toyoda, the president of the
company and the grandson of the auto maker's founder, has been
trying to take a more globally minded approach.
In 2013, he added directors from outside the company for the
first time ever, including Mark Hogan, an American and a former GM
executive. The company now has seven non-Japanese managers among
its 63 top executives including auditors and supervisors. It also
employs one Japanese woman as an external auditor.
Japan Inc. has seen some small waves of Western executives. In
the auto sector, Carlos Ghosn, a Brazil-born French citizen of
Lebanese origin, turned around Nissan in the 2000s and continues to
serve as the chief executive officer of both Nissan and its
alliance partner Renault.
On Wednesday, Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. said it would promote
Christophe Weber, a Frenchman who is currently chief operating
officer, to chief executive officer effective April 1.
But such instances are few and far between. A survey by a
researcher at a government-affiliated think tank of nearly 3,400
major Japanese companies showed that 99% of firms don't have any
foreign board members.
Mr. Leroy, currently a senior managing officer, joined Toyota in
1998 after working at Renault SA for 16 years. Since then he has
been rising within Toyota's internal ranks. "He knows Toyota even
better than many Japanese employees," a former Toyota executive who
knows Mr. Leroy said. "This is a sign that Toyota has nurtured
non-Japanese talent with a strong understanding of the
company."
Julie Hamp, now chief communications officer for Toyota Motor
North America, will be based in Japan and will cover communications
as a managing officer. Christopher Reynolds, Toyota Motor North
America's chief legal officer, will take on his current role in a
global capacity.
Mr. Reynolds was involved in Toyota's $1.2 billion settlement
with the U.S. Justice Ministry last year over investigations
involving safety problems, which came after an accident in the U.S.
in 2009 that led to complaints of unintended acceleration in some
Toyota vehicles. More than 10 million Toyota vehicles were recalled
in the U.S.
On top of improving diversity, Toyota, which was widely
criticized for its slow decision making during the recalls, hopes
to further speed up day-to-day decisions by delegating those types
of responsibilities to senior managing officers and lower-ranking
executives. Executive vice presidents, meanwhile, will focus on
achieving longer-term growth. Toyota also said it would scrap
specific areas of responsibilities for most executive vice
presidents so they can act more broadly.
One of Toyota's key promotions was for senior managing officer
Shigeki Terashi, who will become an executive vice president. Mr.
Terashi, an engineer who has held key positions in North America,
will oversee a new department that develops strategies for
connected vehicles including autonomous driving technologies.
Toyota also made appointments aimed at boosting the
competitiveness of its group as its auto parts suppliers face big
German rivals such as Bosch and Continental AG.
To bolster ties with its key suppliers, it named a senior
managing officer from group company Aisin Seiki Co. and a managing
officer from Denso Corp. Toyota holds a 23.2% stake in Aisin and a
24.7% stake in Denso.
For the first time ever, Toyota also promoted a former factory
worker to the role of senior managing officer.
Executive vice president appointments are effective after
Toyota's annual shareholders' meeting that is expected to take
place in June. Appointments for senior managing officers and
managing officers are effective April 1.
Write to Yoko Kubota at yoko.kubota@wsj.com
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