Jailed American Executive Resigns From Toyota
The American public relations chief of Toyota Motor resigned on Wednesday, the automaker said, offering her notice from a Japanese jail after her arrest last month on suspicion of illegally bringing a restricted painkiller into the country.
Toyota “has accepted her resignation after considering the concerns and inconvenience that recent events have caused our stakeholders,” the company said in a statement.
The arrest of the executive, Julie Hamp, has been an embarrassment for the automaker, which had only recently promoted her as part of an effort to introduce more diversity into its executive suite. She was the highest-ranking woman at the company and one of the most senior executives who was not Japanese.
Julie Hamp, Toyota's global head of public relations, was accused of illegally bringing a restricted painkiller into Japan.Toyota Defends Diversity Hiring After American Is ArrestedJUNE 19, 2015
Didier Leroy, head of Toyota's European operations, has been named executive vice president, the highest rank to which a non-Japanese has risen in the carmaker's history.More Foreigners Move to Top Ranks at ToyotaMARCH 4, 2015
Ms. Hamp has been in custody since June 18 and has not been formally charged. The police say they found oxycodone, a powerful and potentially addictive painkiller, in a parcel she received from the United States. The tightly controlled prescription drug can be imported only with special permission, which the police said Ms. Hamp had not obtained. It is illegal to ship it by mail.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/02/business/international/jailed-american-executive-resigns-from-toyota.html
