Susan Elkington
Susan Elkington has been named as the next leader of Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky, Inc. (TMMK), beginning in 2018.
Elkington will succeed retiring TMMK president Wil James to will oversee the $7 billion operation in Georgetown, Kentucky, which employs over 8,000 people, and can produce as many as 550,000 vehicles and more than 600,000 engines per year.
With Elkington’s appointment as president, three Toyota plants in the United States will be led by women in 2018. Elkington will join Millie Marshall and Leah Curry, top leaders at Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Indiana, Inc. (TMMI) and Toyota Motor Manufacturing, West Virginia, Inc. (TMMWV), respectively, who were both named presidents earlier this year.
A native of Huntingburg, Indiana, Elkington earned her mechanical engineering degree from the University of Evansville. She began her career with Toyota in 1998 in Princeton, Indiana, as an assembly engineering specialist. By 2013, she held the position of manufacturing vice president at TMMI.
She joined TMMK in January as senior vice president, overseeing the plant’s manufacturing and administrative functions. Prior to this role, she most recently served as general manager, Production Control Division, at Toyota Motor Corporation’s (TMC) global headquarters in Toyota City, Japan. Elkington was the first woman to serve in this global production role, supporting Toyota’s 53 manufacturing plants worldwide.
She is a board member of the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, a STEP Ahead Honoree (2014) and ATHENA of Southwest Indiana Award Finalist (2013).
Toyota’s Georgetown plant was its first wholly owned vehicle plant in the United States, which began building Camrys in 1988. Today, the plant also manufactures the Camry Hybrid, Avalon, Avalon Hybrid and Lexus ES 350, the only Lexus model produced in the United States, as well as engines and engine components.