Mark Templin will become president and CEO of Toyota Motor North America (TMNA) on January 1, 2027, succeeding Ted Ogawa, who is returning to Toyota Motor Corporation in Japan as a Senior Fellow. Toyota announced the transition on November 5, and The Dallas Morning News reported that it is part of a broader round of executive changes. Automotive News also covered the handoff.
Templin moves up from executive vice president and chief operating officer, a role he has held since January 2025. In the new post, he will lead Toyota’s North American operations, including manufacturing, research and development, sales, marketing, product support and corporate functions. The appointment keeps the regional CEO role inside the leadership team that has been managing those functions together.
Ogawa will remain CEO through December 31. He will serve as a senior executive adviser from January through March, then take up the Senior Fellow role at the Japanese parent company in April. Toyota says he will oversee external-affairs activities for some Toyota-owned businesses. Automotive News noted that Ogawa became popular with Toyota and Lexus dealers, in part for advocating disciplined inventory levels.
The move also resets the operating partnership around the next CEO. Hiroshi Nambu, currently president of Toyota Motor Corporation’s Business Planning & Operation division, will become TMNA’s chief operating officer on January 1, succeeding Templin. The sequence creates a four-month transition for Ogawa and a simultaneous handoff of the COO seat, while leaving the broader operating scope intact.
Templin’s Toyota career spans more than three decades. He joined the company in 1990 and has led businesses across the Toyota and Lexus portfolio, including work in North American sales, manufacturing, supply chain, customer service and financial services. His experience gives the appointment a strong internal-continuity profile, though the company has not described it as a change in strategy.
The leadership moves are another signal of how automakers are developing and moving senior executives across regional and operating roles. Encafeinados recently covered a separate automotive handoff when Nissan Motor Ibérica named Eduard Moreno general manager. Toyota’s transition is broader in scope: it changes the regional chief executive and operating chief at the same time, with the former CEO staying close through the first quarter.
