Toyota announced on Thursday that it will be shaking up its North American chain of command. Toyota will replace its top two North American executives with two executive from its European and Japanese operations.
Tetsuo Agata, 55, will be taking over Seiichi Sudo’s position as president and COO of Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America Inc. Agata was most recently Toyota’s head of research and development in Europe. Sudo, 57, will be returning to Japan.
In addition, Shigeki Terashi, 53, will replace Yasuhiko Ichihashi as executive vice president of the division and president of Toyota Technical Center, according to Automotive News. Terashi lasted headed Toyota’s development center in Japan. Ichihashi, 56, will also be headed back to Japan and will be serving as Toyota’s senior managing director in r&d.
Toyota failed to give a reason for the shakeup, but recent quality woes could have been the driving factors.
