TITLE: Vice President, Product and Marketing Management

COMPANY: Toyota Motor Europe

BASED: Brussels, Belgium

AGE: 50

NATIONALITY: Italian

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

Andrea Carlucci has spent more than 20 years at Toyota, starting in 1999 as a sales zone manager for Toyota Motor Italia, where he held positions in marketing, including product, pricing and brand management. He then held various positions at Toyota Motor Europe in Brussels from 2006 to 2009 before returning to Italy as head of marketing for Toyota Italia. Carlucci was named managing director for Toyota Italia in 2015. He returned to TME as marketing director in January 2018, and was named director of product planning and marketing management in April 2019. He received his current promotion in June 2021. Carlucci holds a degree in political science from LUISS in Rome.

REASON FOR WINNING

As head of marketing at Toyota Motor Europe, Andrea Carlucci pushed to demonstrate to the automaker’s headquarters in Japan that a bold -- even polarizing -- design was exactly what Toyota really needed to stand out in the hypercompetitive European market. The result, the CH-R compact crossover, with its distinctive coupe styling, has been a major boost to Toyota’s sales, market share, profits and brand awareness in Europe.

As head of product planning, Carlucci planted the seeds that would make the new-generation Yaris small car a winner, and not only for its full-hybrid powertrain. The Yaris was Europe’s best-selling model overall in January and ranked third in the first half. With the coming Yaris Cross small SUV, which has a low-emission all-wheel drive system thanks to an electric rear axle – he has created a product that is set to add 150,000 profitable sales a year to Toyota Europe’s lineup. Finally, with Toyota Europe head of design Ian Cartabiano, Carlucci is the co-father of the Aygo Prologue X concept, a lesson to European automakers on how to create a new type of minicar focused on bold design and a fun-to-drive attitude. And profitability.