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TOYOTA CITY, Japan — Since the company is spread throughout the globe, Toyota Motor Corp. has made significant management changes aimed at moving local personnel to senior management positions in North America and Europe.

Toyota believes that making these changes puts in place management structures capable of more rapidly and accurately grasping local conditions and identifying local needs. All of the changes go into effect today. 

Starting with Europe, the automaker said the new president of Toyota Motor Europe NV/SA will be Didier Leroy, replacing Tadashi Arashima.

For Toyota Motor Manufacturing Turkey, the company tapped Orhan Ozer for the role as president, replacing Tamer Unlu.

And for Toyota Motor Manufacturing Poland, the new president is Carl Klemm in place of Kenji Manabe.

As far as North America, the new president of Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Texas is Chris Nielsen, replacing Kenji Fukuta. Taking on the role of president of Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Indiana is Norm Bafunno, supplanting Kazumori Oi.

The switches at Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky are a bit more complex as the automaker created a new position for the executive who held the role as president, Steve St. Angelo. With a new role as chairman, St. Angelo will remain in Kentucky with Wil James coming on board there as president.

The OEM put together a similar executive structure at Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada. Management moved Real Tanguay into the role of chairman with Brian Krinock set to take Tanguay's place as president.

"Taking both a medium- and long-term view, TMC has long fostered local personnel in overseas markets," the automaker explained.

"Now, TMC is stepping up the appointment of local personnel — with intimate knowledge of local conditions — to senior management positions," the company went on to state.

"TMC remains committed to actively fostering and appointing local personnel to further internationalize its overseas management structure," Toyota added.

In other company news, the automaker modified its corporate structure at headquarters by appointing two new executives to its board of directors, Nobuyori Kodaira and Mitsuhisa Kato.

The company also added seven managing officers, Kunihiko Ogura, Kazuhiro Kobayashi, Kazuo Ohara, Shuichi Koyama, Shigeki Tomoyama, Satoshi Takae and Kazuya Inagaki.

While Fujio Cho remains chairman and Akio Toyoda as president, the automaker noted it has 83 executives within its top management team, including two vice chairmen, six executive vice presidents, 15 senior managing directors, two directors, seven corporate auditors and 49 managing officers.