Toyota officially confirmed 53-year-old Akio Toyoda as company president today. The grandson of company founder Kiichiro Toyoda takes over for outgoing president Katsuaki Watanabe, who will stay on as vice chairman.
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"We expect to face continued hardship in our business environment for the near term, despite signs of recovery in some areas," Watanabe told investors at Toyota's annual shareholders' meeting. "We are sorry to have worried our shareholders," he said.
Toyoda is taking over the company during the worst economic downturn in the company's 72-year history. Though he has been groomed for years to take over his grandfather's company, he and his new management team will have serious challenges ahead of them. Watanabe told investors that the company is trying to make deeper cost cuts than it had originally planned and reiterated that hybrids are still at the core of its business plan. While the popular Prius hybrid has done wonders for Toyota's image, Toyoda himself has also expressed interest in jumpstarting the company's performance vehicles, which could be difficult given the state of the economy.
Joining Toyoda in the upper echelons of Toyota City will be four new executive vice presidents and eight new members on the company's 29-member board. While Toyoda has tried to balance fresh blood with experience, the company will lose some key experience in the form of Honorary Chairman Shoichiro Toyoda -- Akio Toyoda's father -- and Senior Advisor Hiroshi Okuda, who have both resigned from the board. The new management team is expected to lay outits agenda at a news conference scheduled for Thursday.
Source: Reuters
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