HispanicBusiness

Steve St. Angelo, who once led Toyota's flagship North American plant in Georgetown, has been promoted to oversee the automaker's operations in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The move was one of several executive assignment changes announced Wednesday by the world's largest automaker.

St. Angelo most recently was senior vice president of Toyota Motor North America and executive vice president of Toyota Motor Engineering and Manufacturing North America, which is based in Erlanger in Northern Kentucky.

As the company struggled with recalls in recent years, he was assigned for a time as chief quality officer for North America.

"This is an exciting opportunity to build on Toyota's continued success in an important emerging market," St. Angelo said in a statement. "As we work to serve our customers in the region, I look forward to contributing my manufacturing and business experience to all of the significant accomplishments our colleagues across Latin America have achieved over the past few years."

St. Angelo, who will be based in São Paulo, Brazil, joined Toyota in 2005 after more than 30 years with rival General Motors. He was the second American to head the Georgetown plant, which is now led by Wil James.

The series of changes also touched the leadership of the North American manufacturing headquarters in Erlanger. President and CEO Shigeki Terashi was named senior managing officer of Toyota Motor Corp. in Japan, where he will be chief officer of the corporate planning and product and business planning divisions. Replacing him will be Osamu "Simon" Nagata, deputy chief officer of the external affairs group for Toyota Motor Corp.