Mark Templin joined Toyota in 1990. On Jan. 1, 2027, he takes the top job in North America.
Toyota Motor North America named Templin, currently its executive vice president and chief operating officer, as president and CEO in a Nov. 5 press release. He replaces Ted Ogawa, who heads back to Toyota Motor in Japan as a senior fellow.
The move is part of a broader executive reshuffle. Toyota isn’t treating it as a shake-up, and nothing in the paperwork suggests it is one.
Ogawa stays CEO through Dec. 31. From January through March he serves as senior executive advisor, then starts his new role in Japan in April.
That’s a three-month overlap baked into the handoff. Toyota does not do abrupt.
“Leading Toyota in North America has been one of the greatest honors of my career,” Ogawa said. He added that he looks forward “to supporting a smooth transition and continuing to contribute to Toyota in Japan.”
Templin inherits the whole operation: manufacturing, R&D, sales, marketing, product support and corporate functions. That’s a long list for a man whose résumé leans hard toward the customer side and the money side of the business.
His career reads like a tour of everything Toyota sells and finances. In 2005 he took over Scion. Later he ran Lexus as group vice president and general manager, overseeing the luxury brand’s U.S. operations.
Then came the finance years. Templin served as director and group COO of Toyota Financial Services, CEO of its Americas and Oceania region, CEO of Toyota Insurance Management Solutions, and board chair of both Toyota Motor Credit and Toyota Financial Savings Bank.
He also logged a string of operational and field jobs along the way.
The COO chair he leaves isn’t going to another North American lifer. Hiroshi Nambu, president of Toyota’s Business Planning and Operation division, steps in as chief operating officer.
So the structure flips. A Japanese executive goes home, an American veteran moves up, and a planner from headquarters takes the number two seat.
Templin has only been COO since January 2025. He got that job when Jack Hollis retired after 33 years with the company.
Two years from COO to CEO is fast by Toyota standards. It’s less fast when the man has spent more than three decades inside the building.
Ogawa’s endorsement leaned on continuity. “Mark has the experience and vision to build on Toyota’s strong foundation in North America,” he said.
Then he sketched the job. Templin, Ogawa said, “will strengthen our competitiveness, support our team members, dealers and suppliers, while delivering products and mobility solutions that meet our customers’ diverse needs.”
That “diverse needs” line is no throwaway. It’s the phrase Toyota has leaned on for years to defend its mix of hybrids, plug-ins, battery EVs and gas engines instead of betting the house on any one of them.
Nothing about this appointment hints at a change in that approach. Toyota picked a dealer-network, brand-building, credit-arm executive who has never worked anywhere else.
The release offers no new targets, no product news and no strategic pivot. It offers a calendar and a chain of command.
Templin’s first day as CEO is New Year’s Day. Ogawa will still be down the hall through March.
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