{"id":141830,"date":"2019-12-11T17:30:56","date_gmt":"2019-12-11T22:30:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=141830"},"modified":"2019-12-12T13:23:26","modified_gmt":"2019-12-12T18:23:26","slug":"toyota-north-america-ceo-jim-lentz-retiring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2019\/12\/toyota-north-america-ceo-jim-lentz-retiring\/","title":{"rendered":"Toyota North America CEO Jim Lentz Retiring"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Jim Lentz, Toyota’s top North American executive, announced his retirement after 38 years with the automaker.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Toyota Motor North America\u2019s top U.S. official, Jim Lentz, is retiring next spring after 38 years with the Japanese automaker.<\/p>\n

Lentz, 64, is the highest ranking American in the company, hired by current Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda, who sought to add more Western executives to the company, providing a more diverse view for Japan\u2019s largest automaker.<\/p>\n

Known for his calm and cool demeanor, he\u2019s had a massive impact on the growth of the company\u2019s North American business, including the creation of the Lexus luxury marque and the Scion brand aimed at younger buyers, seeing the company through the unintended acceleration issue as well as the move of the company\u2019s U.S. headquarters from California to Texas a few years back.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

(EVs aren’t ready to take over the world, says Toyota’s Lentz)<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

He\u2019s now winding down the company\u2019s consolidation and restructuring of its North American operations and leading its \u201cOne Toyota\u201d program designed to improve customer relations and speed up decision making and improve collaboration across the company.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Toyota Motor North America Chief Executive Officer Jim Lentz speaks at the groundbreaking of the company’s new headquarters in Plano, Texas.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cAfter finalizing our One Toyota consolidation and laying the groundwork for the future of mobility, now is the time for a new leadership team to take the next steps to help further transform Toyota,\u201d said Lentz in a statement.<\/p>\n

He will be succeeded by Tetsuo \u201cTed\u201d Ogawa, who is currently TMNA\u2019s chief operating officer. Ogawa will report to Didier Leroy, TMNA Vice Chairman and president of business planning and operations, Toyota Motor Corp.<\/p>\n

\u201cJim Lentz has had an incredible impact on our company. He has been an outstanding leader and was instrumental in restructuring the company and bringing together our North American region,\u201d said Ogawa, 60, who has held several executive posts at the automaker he joined in 1984.<\/p>\n

(Toyota offers bright outlook for 2020)<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cHe deserves a lot of credit for all he has accomplished in his many roles around the globe and he will be greatly missed. He leaves a legacy that helped build a stronger, more unified Toyota that is prepared to face the future of mobility, and I am humbled and excited to continue working with the Toyota leadership team to create an even more dynamic and vibrant company.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lentz is the latest American executive to leave the automaker, voluntarily or otherwise, to be replaced by a Japanese executive.<\/p>\n

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Toyota North America CEO Jim Lentz was the first head of the Scion brand.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

About five years ago, the aforementioned Toyoda hired several non-Japanese executives to high-level positions, seeking to diversify the company\u2019s senior ranks. The highest profile of these may have been former public relations chief Julie Hamp, who resigned from the company in the wake of her arrest after a prescription drug was mailed to her from the U.S.<\/p>\n

Lentz said decision to choose a lifelong employee and Japanese national over an American or company outsider reflects a desire for continuity, noting that Toyoda wanted his replacement to be a person well versed in Toyota\u2019s U.S. business.<\/p>\n

(Toyota riding wave\u00a0of new product launches)<\/i><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWhile he may be Japanese, Ted understands the U.S. market,\u201d Lentz said. \u201cI really don\u2019t see a Japanese influence coming into North American decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Toyota Motor North America\u2019s top U.S. official, Jim Lentz, is retiring next spring after 38 years with the Japanese automaker. Find out more about the longtime executive’s departure at TheDetroitBureau.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4389,"featured_media":117242,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8,5],"tags":[],"make":[75,111],"post-state":[],"category_old":[118,140,286,150,151,123,299,258,132,125,206,288],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141830"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4389"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141830"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=141830"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=141830"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=141830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}