Top Team Changes at Toyota Motor Sales-USA
24 May 1999
Top Team Changes at Toyota Motor Sales-USA
TORRANCE, Calif., May 24 -- It was announced today that the
top management of Toyota Motor Sales (TMS), USA, Inc., will change at the end
of June.
Yoshio Ishizaka, president and CEO of TMS since mid-1996, has been
promoted to senior managing director of Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) and
will move to Japan to assume new duties covering a broad spectrum of
international operations. Ishizaka, a TMC director since 1992, will be
succeeded by Yoshimi Inaba.
TMS Executive Vice President Yale Gieszl will be named TMS vice chairman.
Jim Press, senior vice president and general manager of automotive operations,
will succeed him.
This is the second time Ishizaka has departed the United States. From
1986 to 1990 he served as senior vice president and chief coordinating officer
of the company's sales and marketing efforts, while helping to develop the
special project that became the Lexus Division.
Ishizaka, who joined TMC in 1964 after earning a law degree from
Hitotsubashi University in Japan, has extensive overseas experience. From
1975 to 1977 he was responsible for truck operations at Toyota's Australian
company and oversaw sales in New Zealand as well. In 1977, he assumed full
responsibility for Toyota's marketing operations in Australia. He returned to
Japan in 1981 to look after European sales as assistant general manager of
that division. After his first U.S. tour, Ishizaka became general manager of
the Europe Division in 1990, a position he held until he returned to the U.S.
in 1996.
Yale Gieszl will step down from his position as executive vice president
and will be appointed vice chairman, serving TMS in an advisory capacity. He
also will continue to serve on the TMS Board of Directors.
Gieszl, who has a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of
Southern California, joined TMS in 1970. He became one of the first two
American officers of the company in 1973. He was promoted to group vice
president in 1980, senior vice president in 1982 and elected to the Board of
Directors in 1989.
During his 29 years at TMS, he has been responsible for every area of the
company's operations. Early in his career, Gieszl was instrumental in the
establishment of Toyota Motor Credit Corporation and Toyota Motor Insurance
Services, organizations that have become an integral part of Toyota's overall
growth and success in the United States.
Since being promoted to executive vice president in 1992, he has played a
key role in increasing Toyota's U.S. competitiveness with the aggressive
launch of new models such as the Toyota Avalon, Camry Solara, RAV4, Sienna,
and the new full-sized Tundra pickup. He also was instrumental in the Lexus
Division's rise into the front rank of the U.S. luxury market with new models
such as the GS300/400, the LX470 and the RX300. His leadership has helped
make the Toyota and Lexus franchises among the most sought after in the auto
industry.
Together, Ishizaka and Gieszl have overseen a period of explosive growth
for Toyota's U.S. operations, both in North American manufacturing capacity
and in sales. Calendar year 1998 U.S. sales were a record 1.36 million cars
and trucks, the Toyota Camry has been the best-selling car in America for two
consecutive years, and Toyota's annual North American production capacity now
exceeds one million vehicles.
Inaba also has extensive international experience. He spent two years at
Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Business in the mid-1970s, earning
an MBA. He worked at Toyota's German operations from 1985 to 1988. From 1988
to 1993, he worked in Toyota's Europe Division in Japan. He moved to TMS in
1993 where he stayed until 1997, ending his U.S. tour as senior vice president
and chief coordinating officer of the Toyota and Lexus Divisions. He returned
to Japan to become general manager of the Europe and Africa Division and a
member of the TMC Board of Directors. Born in Osaka in 1946, Inaba joined
Toyota in 1968 from Kyoto University, where he earned a degree in economics.
Like Gieszl, Press joined TMS in 1970. He worked in virtually every phase
of the business before serving as general manager of the San Francisco and
Cincinnati sales regions, as well as Southeast Toyota Distributors (SET).
Upon returning to TMS from SET, Press had a brief stint as head of Toyota's
Aviation Business Development Office before being promoted to senior vice
president of planning and development. He was then appointed general manager
of the Lexus Division and -- most recently -- senior vice president and
general manager of automotive operations. Press also serves on the TMS Board
of Directors.
Press and Inaba have worked closely together in the past and should
provide topnotch leadership to take TMS into the 21st century.