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39773
Fri, 01/09/2009 - 20:02
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https://oananews.org//node/39773
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Toyota to promote Akio Toyoda to top job in June
NAGOYA, Jan. 9 Kyodo -
Toyota Motor Corp. has decided to promote Akio Toyoda, a member of the
company's founding family, to president in June, marking the first time in 14
years that a member of the family will take the helm of the nation's largest
automaker, sources familiar with the matter said Friday.
Current President Katsuaki Watanabe, 66, will become vice chairman while
Chairman Fujio Cho, 79, will retain his post, the sources said.
The top management reshuffle will be formalized at a board meeting to be held
after a regular shareholders meeting in June.
Company leaders were initially mulling over making the reshuffle at the
beginning of the new business year in April. They, however, decided on a June
replacement with an aim to negate views that Watanabe may be stepping down to
take the blame for the firm's poor performance, according to observers.
The 52-year-old Toyoda is a great-grandson of the late Sakichi Toyoda, who
founded the Toyota Motor group in 1937, and also the oldest son of 83-year-old
Toyota Motor Honorary Chairman Shoichiro Toyoda.
Akio Toyoda, who has long been tipped as a likely future president, has served
as an executive vice president since 2005, supervising both overseas and
domestic sales as well as marketing operations. He has also served as the head
of the China business division and the information business division.
He will become the first Toyota Motor president from the founding family since
1995 when Tatsuro Toyoda retired from the board of advisers post due to
illness.
The decision comes as the automaker tries to weather the current business
environment it is facing against the backdrop of the global economic downturn.
In late December, the automaker projected its first-ever group operating loss
of 150 billion yen for the business year ending in March this year, compared
with an earlier forecast of 600 billion yen in profit, as shrinking global auto
sales and the Japanese yen's sharp appreciation have dramatically changed its
fortunes.
==Kyodo
Toyota Motor Corp. has decided to promote Akio Toyoda, a member of the
company's founding family, to president in June, marking the first time in 14
years that a member of the family will take the helm of the nation's largest
automaker, sources familiar with the matter said Friday.
Current President Katsuaki Watanabe, 66, will become vice chairman while
Chairman Fujio Cho, 79, will retain his post, the sources said.
The top management reshuffle will be formalized at a board meeting to be held
after a regular shareholders meeting in June.
Company leaders were initially mulling over making the reshuffle at the
beginning of the new business year in April. They, however, decided on a June
replacement with an aim to negate views that Watanabe may be stepping down to
take the blame for the firm's poor performance, according to observers.
The 52-year-old Toyoda is a great-grandson of the late Sakichi Toyoda, who
founded the Toyota Motor group in 1937, and also the oldest son of 83-year-old
Toyota Motor Honorary Chairman Shoichiro Toyoda.
Akio Toyoda, who has long been tipped as a likely future president, has served
as an executive vice president since 2005, supervising both overseas and
domestic sales as well as marketing operations. He has also served as the head
of the China business division and the information business division.
He will become the first Toyota Motor president from the founding family since
1995 when Tatsuro Toyoda retired from the board of advisers post due to
illness.
The decision comes as the automaker tries to weather the current business
environment it is facing against the backdrop of the global economic downturn.
In late December, the automaker projected its first-ever group operating loss
of 150 billion yen for the business year ending in March this year, compared
with an earlier forecast of 600 billion yen in profit, as shrinking global auto
sales and the Japanese yen's sharp appreciation have dramatically changed its
fortunes.
==Kyodo
