Toyota Motor North America will promote a longtime marketing executive to group vice president for Toyota marketing, succeeding Ed Laukes, who announced his retirement in November.
Lisa Materazzo, 52, vice president of Lexus marketing for Toyota Motor North America, will succeed Laukes on Jan. 4. She will be responsible for Toyota Division’s market planning, advertising, merchandising, sales promotions, incentives, NASCAR and motorsports, as well as all social and digital media, the Japanese automaker said. She will report to Toyota Division General Manager David Christ, whom she worked with at Lexus when he led the luxury division.
Her promotion comes as TMNA plans a flurry of new, redesigned or refreshed vehicles that will hit U.S. dealer lots within the next 16 months.
Materazzo is in her second stint at Toyota Motor North America. She joined the company in 1998 as a senior product planner after working for eight years at investment brokerage firms A.G. Edwards and Smith Barney. She eventually became national marketing and communications manager for Scion before departing Toyota in 2008. She went on to hold managerial positions at Brand Sense Partners, Ridemakerz and AOL.
In 2014, she returned to Toyota as corporate manager, media strategy and digital engagement.
“We were able to get her back,” said Jack Hollis, who was vice president of Toyota marketing at the time and now is senior vice president of automotive operations at Toyota Motor North America. “That’s taking an all-star who went out and got some more skills.”
The company also announced several other executive moves, all effective Jan. 4:
- Tadahisa Isono will return to Toyota Motor Corp. in Japan to oversee production engineering in advanced R&D as chief project leader for the automaker’s global rebuild plan and sustainable development goals in the Production Group. Isono, who came to Toyota Motor North America in 2015, is executive vice president for production engineering.
- Toshio Niimi, general manager of Toyota’s plants in Honsha and Kinuura, Japan, will succeed Isono as executive vice president for production engineering. In the role, Niimi will oversee the automaker’s North American production plants and report directly to Toyota Motor North America CEO Ted Ogawa.
- Tom Stricker, 55, who joined Toyota in 2001, has been promoted to group vice president for sustainability and regulatory affairs. He currently is vice president of sustainability and regulatory affairs for Toyota Motor North America.
- Monte Kaehr, 51, chief engineer for the Toyota Sienna minivan, will become group vice president for advanced mobility R&D. Kaehr has been with Toyota since 1992.
- Jeff Makarewicz, 54, group vice president for advanced mobility research and development, will become group vice president and executive adviser, R&D and corporate strategy and planning. He replaces Edward Mantey, who is retiring on Jan. 29 after 29 years.
