The Alliance for Automotive Innovation has named Chris Reynolds, Toyota’s chief administrative officer for corporate resources in North America, as its 2021 board chair.
Reynolds, 58, succeeds General Motors President Mark Reuss, who served as the association’s inaugural chair last year.
“The launch of our new association last January was well-timed to help convene the industry around a common set of principles and to help work together toward achieving our goals, particularly with the unprecedented challenges we faced,” Reuss said in a statement. “It was an honor to serve as the first chair … and I’m confident that under the leadership of new chair Chris Reynolds, we will continue our one-industry approach as we work to transform mobility.”
Reynolds was honored by Automotive News as a 2019 All-Star in public policy for helping shape Toyota’s path through a renegotiation of U.S.-Japanese trade that could have severely crippled the giant Japanese automaker’s operations in the U.S. He joined Toyota in 2007.
Reynolds takes on the role of chair as a new administration under President Joe Biden shifts the focus toward clean energy and efforts that could accelerate adoption of EVs in the U.S.
“The automotive industry has some tough challenges ahead, but there are also great opportunities as we work together to transform our industry to cleaner, safer and more connected forms of mobility,” Reynolds said in a statement.
John Bozzella, CEO of the association, said he looks forward to working with Reynolds “to build on the great work that Mark led the association through in 2020.”
