Dennis Cuneo, the 55-year-old Senior veep of ToMoCo NorAm, has made the "decision" to "leave the company" after a 22-year stretch with the #1 super best automaker from the land of the rising sun. Cuneo will be heading back to the Washington DC law firm of Arent, Fox — but will still be working to advise ToMoCo on manufacturing site selection. So why's Cuneo going back to his old law firm to basically be paid by Toyota to continue doing his job, but from outside the company? Well, none of the industry press folks seem willing to speculate, but we'll put it to you this way — when Automotive News finished reporting the above facts, they immediately dropped the following paragraph into their three-paragraph article:
In 2005, Cuneo received complaints from employee Sayaka Kobayashi, who claimed she was sexually harassed by her boss, TMA chief executive Hideaki Otaka. According to court filings, Kobayashi did not feel Cuneo addressed her concerns. Otaka left the company after Kobayashi's lawsuit was filed.
So yeah, umm — we don't know either — and of course...
...we'd never speculate — so our best bet's that its got something to do with that whole Otaka-Kobayashi thing. Or you know, he just really liked the view of K-street better from his old law firm digs and it took him 22 years to realize it.
Cuneo leaves Toyota to return to law (sub. req.) [Automotive News]
Related:
Jim Press-ing On After Toyota Sex Scandal; Toyota's Otaka Is Totally Feeling It [internal]