Toyota has appointed Paul van der Burgh as the new chief of Lexus Europe. Van der Burgh will be taking over the post that Andy Pfeiffenberger currently holds. Pfeiffenberger will still remain as vice president of Lexus Europe. Van der Burgh will stay as Lexus Europe director, but will report to Karl Schlicht, who is now in charge of Toyota and Lexus' product planning, sales, marketing and aftersales. According to a Toyota spokesman, the Japanese carmaker wanted to scrap the vice president of Lexus Europe post since this layer of management has become unnecessary in the company’s organization. Toyota also appointed Takayuki Shirata, currently Toyota Europe's lead coordinating executive of purchasing, to vice president of purchasing for Europe. Shirata will be taking over the post currently held by Mark Adams. Toyota has appointed Adams to become Toyota Europe’s vice president of strategic relationship management, corporate and business planning, a post currently held by Pfeiffenberger. On the other hand, Toyota named Pfeiffenberger as Toyota Europe's new vice president of human resources and administration, taking over the post currently held by chief financial officer Takashi Karasawa. The management shuffle in Toyota will take effect on Sept. 1, 2012.
Toyota names Paul van der Burgh as new Lexus Europe chief
by Gerald Ferreira, Email, 07 Aug, 2012
