Toyo Exec to Chrysler

[BigBlackDodge]

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070906/chrysler_press.html?.v=7

Whats known about this guy?


BBD

[TeeWJay426]

'Borrowed' from another forum....

"Tom LaSorda, who was to continue as CEO until just after Chrysler was officially taken over by Cerberus, will now be joined by James Press, former CEO of Toyota North America. Jim Press will be responsible for North American sales, international sales, global marketing, product strategy, and service and parts for Chrysler LLC, and will share Tom LaSorda's titles as Vice Chairman and President.

LaSorda's responsibilities will continue to include manufacturing, procurement and supply, employee relations, and global business development and alliances.

Press said, "Part of my new responsibilities will be strengthening and energizing the dealer body. This is something I was passionate about at Toyota and will be passionate about at Chrysler."

Press spent 37 years with Toyota, where he most recently served as the first non-Japanese President of Toyota Motor North America Inc., responsible for sales, engineering and the company's 15 manufacturing plants with 41,000 employees in North America. He was also the first non-Japanese executive selected to the Board of Directors of Toyota Motor Corporation.

During his tenure at Toyota, the company grew from an upstart new company selling 100,000 vehicles per year to the second largest auto company in the United States.

Press becomes a member of the Chrysler LLC Board of Directors and the Board of Managers of Cerberus Operations and Advisory Co. (COAC), LLC. Press joins LaSorda as Vice Chairman of COAC."

[bull]

So everything Chrysler makes now is going to look like a Corolla?

[Aero426]

Press spent 37 years with Toyota, where he most recently served as the first non-Japanese President of Toyota Motor North America Inc., responsible for sales, engineering and the company's 15 manufacturing plants with 41,000 employees in North America. He was also the first non-Japanese executive selected to the Board of Directors of Toyota Motor Corporation.

Jim Press is an alumni of the "College of Bob McCurry".   McCurry if you are not familiar with him is the Godfather of the 69 Dodge Daytona.

[nh_mopar_fan]

Geez, can't we find some non-car guy retread who won't have a clue on how to build a successful car company?

Wait, then some would bitch about that.

It may be a shock to some but, Lee Iacocca is not walking through that door.

[70charger_boy]

Guys, believe it or not this is great news.  This new guy made Toyota what it is today and will put Dodge back up to number 1.  Either way it's better than that German fiasco we had for the last several years

[Brock Samson]

W.T.F.R.U talking about?!.. 

[RD]

Press spent 37 years with Toyota, where he most recently served as the first non-Japanese President of Toyota Motor North America Inc., responsible for sales, engineering and the company's 15 manufacturing plants with 41,000 employees in North America. He was also the first non-Japanese executive selected to the Board of Directors of Toyota Motor Corporation.

Jim Press is an alumni of the "College of Bob McCurry".   McCurry if you are not familiar with him is the Godfather of the 69 Dodge Daytona.

shit, that in itself makes it alright in my eyes, but then again, i am not a stockholder so it will not really affect me.

[70charger_boy]

W.T.F.R.U talking about?!.. 

You forgot to add the word Willis

[TeeWJay426]

Additional info I found, from a yahoo business report- overall, it sounds like this should be a good thing for Chrysler.

Top Toyota North American Exec Jim Press Jumps to Rival Automaker Chrysler

DETROIT (AP) -- Chrysler pulled off a major coup Thursday, hiring away the highly-regarded Jim Press, Toyota's top North American executive, to run its sales and marketing operations.

Press, 60, formerly president and chief operating officer for Toyota in North America and the first non-Japanese member of Toyota Motor Corp.'s board of directors, will become Chrysler vice chairman and president.

He joins new Chairman and CEO Robert Nardelli and Tom LaSorda on Chrysler LLC's top management team. LaSorda already has and will retain the same titles as Press.

LaSorda will run the company's manufacturing and purchasing operations, while Press will handle sales, marketing and product strategy, said company spokesman Mike Aberlich.

Hiring Press is Chrysler's second major executive announcement since August, when private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP took control of 80.1 percent of the company from DaimlerChrysler AG. Cerberus announced Aug. 6 that Nardelli, a former Home Depot Inc. CEO, would become Chrysler's Chairman and CEO.

Press' resignation will be effective Sept. 14, Toyota said.

"Tom LaSorda and I are thrilled that one of the most successful executives in the history of the auto industry has joined our leadership team at the New Chrysler," Nardelli said in a statement.

Toyota said Shigeru Hayakawa, a Japanese veteran at the company and Toyota managing officer, would be the new president of Toyota North America.

"Toyota has been the centerpiece of my life. This was the most difficult decision I have made," Press said in a statement.

Press, an American, has been with Toyota for 37 years. His rise at Toyota was widely seen as furthering the company's effort to bolster its standing as a multinational corporation.

"Jim has played a significant role in strengthening Toyota's presence in the U.S," Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe said. "I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to all he has done for Toyota."

Press will be asked to help turn things around at Chrysler, which has had problems of late in its sales and marketing operations.

Press comes to Chrysler with a great record of success at Toyota, which has seen continued sales increases in the U.S. for the past several years. The hiring comes as Chrysler's sales have been dropping and it has tried to repair fractured relations with its dealers.

"You can't argue with the level of success that Toyota has had," Aberlich said. "The way they've developed the car side of the business, the way they've developed their relationships with dealers."

Aberlich said hiring Press is no reflection on LaSorda, who was demoted from chairman and CEO when Nardelli was hired.

"The guy is such a remarkable get that you're going to do it," Aberlich said of Press, equating the hiring with a baseball team bringing another power hitter onto its roster.

Chrysler would not comment on Press' compensation package, and because it now is a private company, details likely will be kept quiet.

But Aberlich said the compensation will be tied to Chrysler's performance.

"He'll help turn us around, and he'll be rewarded," Aberlich said.

Also in August, Chrysler hired away a top marketing executive from Toyota's Lexus luxury brand. Deborah Wahl Meyer, 44, was named vice president and chief marketing officer.

Chrysler and its financial arm earned $549 million in the second quarter but would have posted an operating loss were it not for accounting changes due to the sale to Cerberus. But Chrysler's $618 million loss in 2006 sparked a major restructuring and eventually the sale.

Press, who makes no secret of his admiration for Toyota's Japanese cultural virtues as a key force of the automaker's strength, has been the most visible figure in the U.S. for the manufacturer of the Camry sedan, Prius hybrid and Lexus luxury models.

As head of Toyota Motor Sales USA, Press led Toyota's rapid sales climb from a 9.3 percent market share in the U.S. in 2000 to 13.1 percent in 2005.

Last year, Press become the first non-Japanese president of Toyota Motor North America Inc., overseeing sales and engineering divisions as well as 12 manufacturing plants in the U.S. and Canada.

Press, who enjoys scuba diving and flying airplanes, joined the Toyota board as part of an expansion of the board from 25 to 30 members. He joined Toyota in 1970, after leaving Ford Motor Co.

But Press' appointment also has been seen as a way Toyota has sought to avert a backlash for its success at a time when U.S. automakers, including Chrysler, are struggling.

Hiroshi Okuda, former president of Toyota and now adviser, had expressed concern about a possible backlash.

He suggested months before Press' appointment that adding a foreign board member and increasing foreign ownership as ways the company could show it was international and avoid the kind of backlash seen during the 1980s when American sentiment turned against Toyota and other Japanese automakers.

Until Press' appointment, Toyota's 25-member board had been all Japanese. The number of board members was increased to 30 this year.

Toyota exports nearly half of the vehicles it sells from Japan, up from about 38 percent in 2005 because of a surge in U.S. demand and the inability of U.S. factories to keep up with demand.

AP Business Writer Yuri Kageyama in Tokyo and Auto Writer Dee-Ann Durbin in Detroit contributed to this report.

[Brock Samson]

so o.k. when was Dodge No 1?.. 

[70charger_boy]

so o.k. when was Dodge No 1?.. 

2009

[Ghoste]

I like your thinking.