Mazda names Jeff Guyton CEO of North American operations

Jeff Guyton, who came to Mazda’s North American operations as president from its European business enterprise two yrs back, has been named CEO of the U.S. subsidiary, effective June 24.

Guyton, 54, will do well Masahiro Moro, who will suppose a recently created world posture of chief communications officer at Mazda’s headquarters in Hiroshima, Japan.

Mazda has been getting traction in the U.S. as of late, eking out a slight product sales raise for 2020 even with the industry disruption of the pandemic. Lifted by product sales of clean crossovers and the institution of an in-residence finance arm, the automaker’s U.S. industry share rose to one.9 p.c past 12 months from one.6 p.c in 2019.

As CEO of Mazda North American Functions in Irvine, Calif., Guyton will suppose oversight of an growing business enterprise. In addition to handling U.S. product sales and advertising, he will be liable for Mazda Canada Inc., primarily based in Toronto Mazda Colombia, primarily based in Bogota and Mazda Motors de Mexico, primarily based in Mexico Town.

He will also have responsibility for Mazda’s U.S. manufacturing at a time of important modify. In addition to the firm’s small-auto creation foundation in Salamanca, Mexico, Mazda is on program to open up an assembly procedure in Huntsville, Ala., this 12 months that is a joint undertaking with Toyota Motor Corp.

That $two.three billion plant will make a new, not-but-determined Mazda crossover built for the North American industry although also generating autos for Toyota.

Guyton, with levels from Ohio’s Wittenberg University and the University of Michigan, commenced his profession with Ford Motor Co. in 1991 as a monetary analyst in Hiroshima, at a time when Ford controlled the Japanese automaker. He moved to Mazda in 2000 as typical supervisor of the firm’s price scheduling office in Hiroshima.