Shoichiro Toyoda, Father of Akio Toyoda, Toyota’s CEO Dies At 97

Shoichiro Toyoda, the son of Toyota’s founder and the father of Akio Toyoda, its current CEO has passed away at the age of 97. He was the honorary chairman of the company till 1994 and 1999. According to Toyota he died of a heart attack at 4:48pm on February 14 in Toyota city, Aichi, Japan.  “Dr Toyoda, who was the son of the company’s founder Kiichiro Toyoda, began his career with Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) in 1952 having earlier graduated from Nagoya University with a degree in engineering.  He later earned an engineering doctorate, writing his thesis on the subject of fuel injection,” said Toyota in an official release. Born on Feb 27, 1925, Shoichiro Toyoda was the son of Toyota’s founder Kilchiro Toyoda and was named managing director of the company for improving its product quality. He became the executive vice president of Toyota in 1972 and was then president of the sales operations from 1981. It was his efforts that made Toyota the largest carmaker in the world with innovations like just in time manufacturing being heralded under him which were later then copied by companies like Apple in the consumer electronics space. He served on the Toyota board for 57 years and was chairman from 1994 to 1999. Since 2009, he was honorary chairman until his death. This news comes at a time when his son Akio Toyoda has decided to take a back seat and transition to the role of chairman, relinquishing the CEO designation.  Toyota has announced that the farewell event will happen in the presence of close friends and family and there will be an event that will be organised by the automaker for its patriarch.  This comes at a time, when Toyota is in the midst of a once in a generation transition of the powertrain from the internal combustion engine to electric power. Akio Toyoda for the longest time resisted the transition towards electric power having pushed hydrogen technology more but in the last year he’s given in and due to investor pressure he’s also relinquishing the CEO position.