Lexus LC Chief Engineer now company president

A changing of the guard has just happened at Lexus. Koji Sato, the chief engineer and executive vice president of Lexus International, and the man that led the engineering of the LC and LS models, has been appointed as the new president of the company.

This comes after Toyota Motor Corporation announced its plans to implement personnel changes, and the development of organizational structures. Moreover, the company said that the recent restructuring and appointment of new personnel is aimed at making leaders work more closely with their team.

Sato's new post will come into effect immediately on January 1, 2020. The 50-year old executive / engineer will succeed the 62-year old Yoshihiro Sawa, who has been at the helm of Lexus since 2017. However, despite Sato's new position as president of Lexus, he will retain his title as chief engineer.

As mentioned earlier, before being appointed as the new leader of the company, Sato served as the chief engineer for Lexus. He was directly involved in the development of the company's new GA-L platform which underpins rear-wheel drive Lexus models. The new platform replaces the older N architecture and is also seeing use in other Toyota models like the all-new Crown and the redesigned Mirai FCEV.