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TOKYO : Toyota Motor Corp. Thursday named the head of its fast-growing North American operations as its first foreign director, reflecting the expanding global reach of Japan's largest automaker.
American Jim Press, 60, who has steered Toyota through a phase of rapid expansion in the world's largest auto market, will join the board along with eight new Japanese directors, subject to shareholder approval in June.
The promotion of Press, who has worked for Toyota for more than three decades, is part of an effort by the Japanese giant to make its top management more international as it grows ever more reliant on overseas sales.
"What we're trying to do is to heighten the level of our management on a global scale," said Toyota spokesman Paul Nolasco.
"We've been managing this company largely with Japanese-only management so we thought that we should probably turn to somebody who has, for example, a very long experience in our North American operations," he added.
Toyota, the world's second largest automaker which is on track to overtake General Motors as the global number one, has been expanding its production in the United States to try to avert potential trade friction with Washington.
While disgruntled auto workers are no longer attacking imported cars in parking lots, Toyota has still taken some flack as its sales overtake those of DaimlerChrysler and Ford.
Press told reporters in Detroit last month that Toyota was not afraid that its rapid growth in the US would trigger a backlash.
"The reality is this environment is quite different than when we consider the word backlash in the context of the past," he said.
Press is already Toyota's highest-ranking American and credited for much of its US success, which contrasts sharply to the woes of US rivals such as General Motors and Ford.
He started his career at Ford but left after less than two years, joining the Japanese automaker in 1970 when it was far behind the Big Three in the United States, and worked his way up the corporate ladder.
He is already a managing officer at Toyota, just below the boardroom level, which now comprises 25 directors but will expand to 30 after the new appointments.
Under his watch, sales of Toyota's popular Prius hybrid, the luxury Lexus brand and the Camry have flourished in the United States.
Toyota was the pioneer of environmentally-friendly hybrids, which proved a major hit in the United States whose own automakers have spent the last decade focusing on gas-guzzling sports utility vehicles.
It recently announced plans to build its eighth North American factory in the southern state of Mississippi.
- AFP/ir
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