Toyota's Plano, Texas-based North American operations announced a slate of executive appointments this week, including the promotion of Sandra Phillips Rogers to the newly created position of senior vice president of corporate resources and general counsel.

The new assignment includes additional responsibilities for Rogers, who has been with Toyota a decade, including oversight for shared serves in Mexico. Her previous title was group vice president, chief legal officer, general counsel and chief diversity officer. In her new role, she will continue to lead legal, as well as sustainability/regulatory affairs and social innovation.

The appointment was one of more than dozen personnel moves that Toyota said it was unveiling to position Toyota's North American operations to continue growth, foster strong dealer and customer relations, and achieve carbon neutrality goals. Toyota has more than 48,000 North American employees.

Prior to joining Toyota, Phillips Rogers was a partner at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius for three years. Before that, she pent more than three years at Pfizer, serving as senior vice president, associate general counsel and chief litigation counsel and almost a decade as partner at Shook, Hardy & Bacon.

Toyota's announcements included the promotion of Chris Yang from vice president of business development and deputy general counsel to group vice president of business development and deputy general counsel.

The company also said Mike Owens, group vice president and chief risk officer of Toyota Financial Services, will retire effective next month. He will succeeded by Kris Pritchard, who is rejoining the company after retiring last year.