Toyota president and CEO to step down, Lexus chief set to take over

Toyota Motor’s president and chief executive officer, Akio Toyoda, is set to vacate his post on April 1. He is also the grandson of the automaker’s founder.

According to CNBC, although he is stepping away from the CEO and president role, Toyoda will remain in the company as the new chairman of the board. The current chairman, Takeshi Uchiyamada, will resign from his post but will also stay as a board member now.

It was reported the 66-year-old Toyoda had been Toyota Motor’s chief since 2009. He will be replaced by Lexus’ 53-year-old chief branding officer, Koji Sato. Lexus is Toyota’s luxury brand, and the executive reshuffle will take effect on the first day of April.

It was stated in the press release that the formal appointment of the members of the Board of Directors would also be made official after approval at the upcoming 119th Ordinary General Shareholders' Meeting.

“I thought the best way to further Toyota’s transformation would be for me to become chairman in support of a new president, and this has led to today’s decision,” Toyoda shared during a webcast this week. “Chairman Uchiyamada has long supported me in all imaginable ways. In retrospect, these 13 years have been a period of struggling to survive one day after the next, and that is my honest feeling.”

The incoming Toyota chief, Koji Sato, also said, “Cars in the future will evolve in the concept of mobility itself. Amid such, I hope to preserve the essential value of the car and propose new forms of mobility.”

Finally, Sato has been leading Toyota’s Lexus unit and the GAZOO racing firm since 2020. He said on Thursday, Jan. 26, that as the new president and CEO, he would continue the company’s green efforts. “Energy security, for example, is a big challenge that the whole planet needs to face and the endeavor towards carbon neutrality will be one example of what we have to work on,” he said.

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