Toyota Shakes Up U.S. Sales Operations

Toyota Motor Corp. has appointed Bob Carter as senior vice president of automotive operations at its American sales unit, Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. The promotion is effective immediately.

Carter is currently general manager of the company's namesake brand in the U.S. He replaces Don Esmond, who will serve as senior adviser until he retires at year-end. Carter is responsible for Toyota-brand sales and administration. He reports to Jim Lentz, CEO of the American unit.

TMS is folding its customer service unit into sales and marketing operations and its advanced technology group into product planning. The latter unit plans and implements such electronics-related products and services as telematics, voice recognition and navigation systems.

Toyota also announced other promotions, all effective immediately. They include:

Bill Fay, TMS group vice for Toyota brand marketing, has succeeded Carter as general manager of the Toyota brand.

Jack Hollis, who was U.S. brand chief for Scion, has filled Fay's marketing post.

Doug Murtha, who headed product planning, has taken the top U.S. Scion job.

Andrew Coetzee, formerly head of Lexus customer service, is appointed to the newly created job of group vice president for the expanded product planning unit.

Chris Hostetter, who was group vice president for strategic resources, has become group vice president for strategic planning. The job includes strategic research, vehicle exports and advanced product strategy.

In addition, TMS has hired Sandra Phillips as assistant general counsel. As a partner at a Houston-based law firm, Phillips specialized in regulatory investigations and class-action and product liability lawsuits areas where Toyota has been under pressure since its massive recall campaigns in 2009-2010.