Brands
Toyota CEO Koji Sato to step down
Toyota City: Toyota Motor Corporation is redrawing its power map, carving up the top job as it braces for a more turbulent automotive era and a faster pivot towards mobility.
The Japanese carmaker said it will revamp its executive structure from April 1st 2026, moving Koji Sato from president and chief executive to vice chairman and a newly created chief industry officer, while elevating Kenta Kon to president and chief executive. Board-level changes will follow from the date of the company’s 122nd ordinary general shareholders’ meeting, scheduled for June 2026.
The logic is blunt: split the outward-looking industry and policy role from the grind of running the company. Sato will range across the broader industrial landscape, while Kon will run Toyota’s internal management.
Toyota says the shift is designed to accelerate decision-making amid rapid internal and external change and to build a structure that better serves its mission of contributing to society through industry.
The backdrop is a car business under strain from electrification, software, new rivals and geopolitical risk. Toyota argues that deeper industry collaboration is now essential to protect international competitiveness. In that context, Sato’s parallel roles loom large.
Sato is set to play a central part as chairman of the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association, or JAMA, a role the industry body asked him to assume in October 2025 after he had been serving as its vice chairman. Toyota’s board approved his appointment as JAMA chairman from January 2026, framing industry contribution as part of the firm’s duty.
He also serves as vice chair of Keidanren, Japan’s business federation, a post he took up in May 2025, where he is expected to push policy proposals centred on monozukuri, or manufacturing, and broader industrial cooperation.
Toyota’s ambitions go beyond the car sector. As it morphs into a mobility company, it wants partnerships outside the traditional automotive orbit as well as within it.
Inside the firm, the priorities are more prosaic but pressing: lift earning power and lower the break-even volume needed to stay profitable. Toyota says this demands company-wide reform across the entire value chain, not siloed fixes.
That is where Kon comes in. As chief financial officer, he has been leading efforts to strengthen Toyota’s earnings structure. He has also picked up cross-functional management experience at Woven by Toyota, the group’s technology arm. The company is betting that a finance-hardened operator can tighten performance while steering transformation.
Top appointments at Toyota are treated as long-term strategic matters. Candidates are reviewed continuously by the executive appointment meeting, which vets director nominations to ensure independence. The body comprises two independent outside directors, Shigeaki Okamoto and Kumi Fujisawa, and one internal director, Yoichi Miyazaki. Its proposals are then decided by the board and formally approved at shareholders’ meetings.
After weighing the strain of one person holding the trio of roles of Toyota’s top executive, JAMA chairman and Keidanren vice chair, the group concluded a split structure was cleaner. The new line-up was proposed at the executive appointment meeting and approved by the board on February 6th.
Other responsibility shifts follow. From April 1st, Yoichi Miyazaki becomes executive vice president, board member and representative director with the additional role of chief financial officer.
Board changes will be formalised in June. Koji Sato will resign his current board post and continue as vice chairman and chief industry officer. Kenta Kon is slated to become president, board member and representative director alongside his role as chief executive.
The message from Toyota is unmistakable: in a harsher, faster industry, governance must be as adaptive as technology. With one leader scanning the horizon and another gripping the tiller, the world’s biggest carmaker is tuning its engine for the next lap. Whether the new gearbox shifts smoothly will be watched far beyond Toyota City.
Brands
Faber-Castell India appoints Sunaina Haldar as director – marketing
With stints at Tata, SleepyCat and ADF Foods under her belt, Haldar is primed to redraw Faber-Castell’s brand story
MUMBAI: Faber-Castell India has poached Sunaina Haldar from ADF Foods, appointing her director – marketing as the German stationery brand looks to muscle up in a category that is rapidly reinventing itself around creativity and self-expression.
Haldar hit the ground running. “My first couple of weeks have been incredibly energising, understanding consumers, visiting markets, engaging with retailers and immersing myself into the world of Faber-Castell Group,” she said.
She arrives with considerable firepower. At ADF Foods, Haldar ran marketing across India and international markets for a portfolio spanning Ashoka, Aeroplane, Camel and ADF Soul. Before that, she was vice-president – marketing at direct-to-consumer mattress brand SleepyCat, where she helmed brand, content and performance marketing. Her résumé also includes a stint leading marketing, new product development and CRM for Tata SmartFoodz at Tata Consumer Products, no small proving ground.
Between corporate roles, Haldar also operated as a fractional CMO for early-stage startups, building marketing strategy and operational structures from scratch, a signal that she knows how to move fast with limited resources.
With 18 years straddling FMCG, D2C and the startup world, Haldar now takes the reins at a brand that has long owned the classroom but is clearly hungry for the living room. In a stationery market where the pencil has become a lifestyle statement, Faber-Castell has picked someone who knows exactly how to sell that story.
