About 600 Toyota information technology employees_including roughly 300 in Plano, Texas _ are getting a new boss, the auto company announced Monday.
Manjit Singh _ whose resume includes stints at Chiquita Brand International, Las Vegas Sands, Box Inc., and most recently Clorox Co. _ was named Toyota Motor North America's new chief information officer. He'll be in charge of developing IT systems and cybersecurity strategies.
Singh is filling the role Zack Hicks vacated in March, when he was promoted to head the company's new "digital transformation and mobility pillar."
The changes are more than just executive shuffling, Toyota leaders say. They reflect a growing recognition among automakers that building good cars won't be enough to sustain them into a future where people almost certainly won't drive their own cars.
Singh will have to help the world's dominant automaker navigate the evolution of information storage technology by figuring out which parts of its data infrastructure can be housed on the public or private cloud, or whether it needs to be on company premises. He'll manage teams who are working on platforms that will transform the way, say, Toyota serves its dealerships.
All the while, Hicks said, Singh will also have to run more traditional IT functions, like negotiating with vendors for employee software.
Toyota has been working to refashion itself more broadly into a mobility company, as the carmaker's Plano-based North American CEO Jim Lentz has emphasized repeatedly.
Also in March, for example, Japan-based Toyota announced that it was spending nearly $3 billion to start a new Tokyo-based company aimed at developing self-driving car technology.
And Hicks has for the past couple of years been not just as a high-ranking executive at Toyota Motor North America, but also CEO of Toyota Connected, a separate company that's also based in Plano, where about 200 tech workers have been building software platforms and apps that will do such things as unlocking rental cars and directing cars to deliver packages while the owners are at work.
Toyota Connected is already designing screens for Toyota and Lexus cars rolling out in 2020, 2021 and 2022.
All those efforts, Toyota executives have said, rely on collecting (with permission) and analyzing vast amounts of data from drivers and vehicles themselves.
Which means, Hicks said, Singh's work making sure information systems are secure will be crucial.
"What many people don't know is that IT systems are the digital manifestation of all your business processes," Hicks said. "Yesterday's investments need to be refreshed and you have to figure out where to place your bets_it's really a strategic role."
Singh was not available for comment Monday.
