Toyota announces executive changes with Kevin Austin and Kensuke Morita taking on additional responsibility
In a recent corporate statement, Toyota confirmed that Kevin Austin would gain responsibility for quality, while Kensuke Morita would assume responsibility for strategy and project planning and management (PPM), demand and supply management (DSM) and tech transformation.
Toyota's Kevin Austin (left) and Kensuke Morita (right) have taken on new responsibilities from June 2026
Toyota
On June 19, 2026, Toyota announced a number of executive changes within its manufacturing, supply chain and financial services operations. These changes, it said, were designed to better serve its customers, drive continued growth and advance its commitment to building where it sells.
Amongst them were two significant announcements for the company's supply chain operations – additional responsibilities given to two key figures at Toyota: Kevin Austin and Kensuke Morita.
Kevin Austin
Toyota confirmed that – as of July 13 – Kevin Austin, group vice president of supply chain, will gain responsibility for quality, with Tom Trisdale, group vice president for quality, reporting to him.
As well as this additional responsibility, Austin will continue to lead supply chain strategy and operations and report to Chris Nielsen, executive vice president of supply chain, chief supply chain officer and chief quality officer at Toyota Motor North America (TMNA).
Austin has been with Toyota for over 20 years, taking on the title of group vice president of supply chain in 2024.
Prior to that, in his role as group vice president of demand and supply management, and supply chain transformation, Austin led TMNA’s 'Project ETA' initiative, which was designed to improve visibility in the outbound delivery of vehicles by precisely locating a car using its vehicle identification number (VIN) and sending notifications every time that particular vehicle crosses a milestone in the delivery process.
“Essentially for every vehicle we produce in North America or built overseas for the North American market, we are able to track the specific lifecycle and logistics milestones from order-to-delivery in near real time,” Austin told Automotive Logistics in 2022. "The visual pipeline tracker provides a view of each vehicle’s identification number (VIN) through its end-to-end journey. It marks completed milestones and highlights its current status."
Kensuke Morita
Also taking on more responsibility from July 13 is Kensuke Morita, group vice president of vehicle supply chain. Continuing to report to Austin, Morita will oversee strategy and project planning and management (PPM), demand and supply management (DSM) and tech transformation.
As a result of this change, Jamese Olayiwola, vice president of strategy and PPM, and Michael Schad, vice president of DSM and tech transformation will now report to Morita.
