TOKYO — Didier Leroy, the top non-Japanese executive at Toyota Motor Corp., is stepping back as part of the company's new push to flatten management and cultivate younger talent.
Leroy, 62, who is an executive vice president and chief competitive officer, will give up those titles April 1 but stay on the board of directors, at least through Toyota's annual shareholders meeting in June. A new slate of directors will be voted on then but has not been announced.
The Frenchman also will remain as chairman of Toyota's European operations. But his reduced profile, along with the retirement of North America CEO Jim Lentz at the end of March, diminishes the input of non-Japanese officers at the top echelons of Japan's biggest carmaker. Lentz will be succeeded in North America by his current deputy, Tetsuo Ogawa.
After the reorganization, the only non-Japanese operating officer will be Johan van Zyl, who remains CEO of Europe. Also in positions of power are Gill Pratt, CEO of the Toyota Research Institute, who is an executive fellow at the Japanese parent company, and James Kuffner, CEO of Toyota Research Institute-Advanced Development, who is a senior fellow at Toyota Motor.
The personnel shuffle is part of a wider management overhaul that Toyota said is meant to keep the company nimble and responsive in an era of rapid change sweeping the auto industry.
Chief among the changes is the elimination of six executive vice president positions that are just one rung below President Akio Toyoda. They will be consolidated into a broad lower tier of operating officer positions.
In announcing the moves last week, Toyoda said removing the layers of hierarchy will give younger managers more visibility, opportunity and interaction with the top.
Leroy, an engineer by training, started his career at Renault and joined Toyota in 1998.
Leroy's broad portfolio made him one of Toyota's most influential executives, earning him a place among the Seven Samurai, a clique of Toyoda and his closest confidants.
Shigeki Terashi, another of the Seven Samurai, will assume Leroy's work as chief competitive officer in addition to Terashi's current role overseeing Toyota's zero-emission car strategy.
Moritaka Yoshida — another Samurai and the executive president in charge of production engineering, vehicle development and emerging-market compact cars — will retire with the shuffle.
Meanwhile, Kenta Kon, the chief officer for accounting, will take over as the new CFO, succeeding Executive Vice President Koji Kobayashi. Kobayashi will become chief risk officer.
