Former Government Officials Join Toyota Diversity Panel

Toyota Motor Corp. created a panel of former U.S. government officials to advise Japan’s largest auto maker as it seeks to promote more women and minority managers and add minority-run dealerships in the biggest auto market.

The seven-member North American Diversity Advisory Board will be chaired by Alexis Herman, Labor secretary in the Clinton administration, Toyota Senior Vice President Doug West said.

The panel will assess efforts to diversify top management, buy more from minority-owned suppliers and increase minority-run dealerships, he said.

Toyota, which ranks fourth in U.S. sales, announced in August a 10-year, $7.8-billion effort to increase minority-owned suppliers and dealerships in North America.

, The panel also includes Jack Kemp, former Republican congressman; Federico Pena, Clinton administration Transportation and Energy secretary; Susan Molinari, a former congresswoman from New York; and Nathaniel Jones, a 6th Circuit Court of Appeals judge in Cincinnati. Other members are Sara Martinez Tucker, president and chief executive of the Hispanic Scholarship Fund, and Irene Hirano, executive director of the Japanese-American National Museum in L.A.

Toyota’s U.S. operations are based in Torrance. The company’s American depositary receipts rose $1.12 to $53.31 Friday on the New York Stock Exchange.