Jim Lentz — the CEO of Toyota Motor North America for the past seven years and the man who helped guide the Japanese automaker's North American operations for the past 14 years — will retire effective March 31 at the end of the company's fiscal year, Lentz told Automotive News.
The 64-year-old Lentz — who began his automotive career as a management trainee in Ford Motor Co.'s Denver region in 1978 and has been with Toyota for 38 years — is to be succeeded April 1 by Tetsuo "Ted" Ogawa, 60, a Japanese national who's been at Toyota Motor North America for the past 12 years, including most recently as COO under Lentz.