Toyota Motor North America has promoted Chris Yang to chief legal officer, replacing Sandra Phillips, who is retiring at the end of July.
Yang is currently senior vice president for enterprise strategy and solutions for Toyota’s North American business and deputy chief compliance officer and deputy chief risk officer for Toyota. He will maintain the latter two roles while adding the North American CLO responsibilities to his remit. Toyota said the appointment is consistent with its vision of a “globally aligned legal, compliance and risk team”. As CLO, he will oversee the North American arm’s legal, compliance and audit functions.
In addition, general counsel Liz Gibson is assuming the role of group vice president for regulatory affairs and environmental sustainability, corporate secretary and chief sustainability officer, replacing Tom Stricker, who is retiring at the end of June. Gibson will lead on Toyota’s US-based corporate sustainability strategy and oversee regulatory policy and compliance. She will report to Yang.
Texas-based Toyota Motor North America is a subsidiary of Japanese car-maker Toyota, overseeing the company’s operations in Canada, Mexico and the US.
Ted Ogawa, president and CEO of Toyota’s North American business, said: “These leadership changes reflect both our deep bench of talent and our commitment to continuity as we build for the future.”
Yang has been with Toyota’s North American arm since 2011 across several roles, originally joining as managing counsel before becoming chief international counsel in 2015. He later became deputy GC in 2019 and took on his current role as SVP for enterprise strategy and solutions in April last year. He expanded his role in 2018 to work for Toyota as deputy GC, before taking on the deputy chief compliance and risk officer role, also in April last year.
Prior to joining Toyota, he spent seven and a half years at Latham & Watkins.
Phillips, meanwhile, is set to retire after just over 14 years with the company, having previously been a partner at Morgan Lewis & Bockius. Prior to that she was associate GC and chief litigation counsel at Pfizer and a partner at Shook Hardy & Bacon.
The company said Phillips had played a “critical role in strengthening Toyota’s legal, regulatory, compliance and sustainability functions, helping guide the company through a dynamic policy and business environment”.
In June 2024, US car-making giant General Motors hired Grant Dixton as CLO from video games business Activision Blizzard.
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