Fujio Cho

Fujio Cho is a Japanese businessman who spent his career at Toyota Motor Corporation, which he joined in April 1960 after earning a law degree from the University of Tokyo. His titles there included managing director, senior managing director, vice president, president and vice chairman of the board, and he served as chairman of the board and representative director from June 2006 to June 2013. He is described as only the second outsider to head Toyota since members of the founding Toyoda family stepped aside in 1995, and he later held the title of honorary chairman. He is noted as a strong advocate of environmentally friendly automotive technology such as the hybrid-electric Prius, and Time magazine named him among the 100 most influential people of 2004.