The departure of the only American and highest ranking executive of Toyota in North America, Jim Press was a shock to industry insiders. Mr. Press first worked for Ford in 1960s and then transferred to Toyota in 1970 and from then on became one of the strongest forces in the North American operation of the Japanese automaker.

Mr. Press will become Mr. Pres-ident of Chrysler next Friday as announced by the company.

It can be remembered that it was only last June that Mr. Press was appointed as Senior Managing Director at Toyota becoming the first ever foreign national to join its Japanese board of directors. The appointment of Mr. Press in the Japanese management lineup was to help prevent a possible resurgence of Japan-US trade friction.

Although pirating of executives from rivals is common among US and European automakers, Mr. Press is the first Toyota Executive to be tempted by a competitor. Other Toyota executives have tried to stop Press from leaving after he announced his intention to quit a week ago.

According to a disappointed Toyota executive interviewed last Thursday night: "It probably reflects the way things are done in the U.S. auto industry. It is all the more regrettable because we had high expectations for his future performance."

A Japanese executive by the name of Shigeru Hayakawa, age 53 who is the Executive Vice President and at the same time the Managing Officer of Toyota will succeed Press.

Chrysler is expecting for Press to rebuild its operations and unlike Robert Nardelli whom Cerberus appointed as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Press has a lot of experience in the auto industry of which a great part consist of his stay with Toyota.

With Mr. Press now with Chrysler we will see if the automaker can really recover.