Top Team Changes at Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A.

Torrance, CA - It was announced 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.

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.