Toyota Material Handling Announces Management Changes

Enlarge Image Shankar Basu alongside Brett Wood, TMHU's newly announced president.

September 25, 2008 • Irvine, Calif.-based Toyota Material Handling, U.S.A.'s (TMHU) chairman and CEO, Shankar Basu, announced the appointment of Brett Wood to president, effective immediately. Basu, outgoing president, will remain active in the company serving as CEO and taking on the new role of chairman. He continues to serve on the TMHU board and as a director on the Toyota Industrial Equipment Manufacturing (TIEM) board of directors. Wood will now serve on the TMHU board as well.

“Brett Wood brings a unique mix of hands-on experience across many facets of our business, including dealer relations, product development, strategic planning and marketing,” said Basu. “His loyal devotion to Toyota and deep expertise in the lift truck market make him the ideal candidate for the job. I look forward to working hand-in-hand with him to lead TMHU into the future.”

 

Wood, who will report to Basu, formerly served as the company's vice president of marketing, product and strategic planning and training operations and previously oversaw dealer development. He has been influential in identifying the trends and requirements of the material handling industry and developing Toyota products and corporate strategies that meet U.S. lift truck users' needs.

 

A TMHU associate since 1989, Wood has held numerous managerial and technical support positions including market application engineer, senior product planning engineer, technical services manager, electric product planning manager, sales training manager and product planning manager. Prior to joining Toyota, Wood held engineering positions with IBM Corp. and Northrop Aerospace.

 

Additional management changes

In addition to naming Wood to president, Toyota also announced several management changes, including Hitoshi Matsuoka promoted to executive vice president of treasury, coordination and strategic planning; Alan Cseresznyak promoted to senior vice president of administration in charge of finance, information technology, human resources, distribution and affiliated companies; Terry Rains promoted to vice president of aftermarket sales in charge of parts, service and customer satisfaction; Adam Hughes to national account sales manager; John Schmitt to national dealer sales manager; and Payman Shabbak promoted to national strategic planning manager.