Toyota CEO Jim Lentz shows off his new black cowboy boots. (Photo by Nathan Hunsinger)
Toyota will donate $1 million to the Plano school district’s Academy High School and give the city six new Tundra pickups.
Company CEO Jim Lentz announced those gifts at a day-long “Hello Texas” block party that Toyota threw on Monday to thank North Texas residents for their “gracious welcome.”
The Japanese automaker is moving its company headquarters to Plano in 2017, bringing as many as 4,000 employees and an undisclosed number of suppliers and service providers.
“I asked my staff what we could do to say thank you for the hospitality and someone said let’s give them a horse,” Lentz said on a breezy, sunny day at Bishop Park in Legacy Town Center. “I said, what about 2,000 horses?” – a reference to the six Tundra pickups.
The gift to the Plano school district was similar to the company’s long-term support for schools in Torrance, Calif., where its headquarters are currently located.
Lentz said the move to Texas– which should be completed in early 2017 — was meant to better position Toyota in the U.S. “for the next 50 years.”
It will permit Toyota to consolidate most of its divisions at its new 100-acre campus at Legacy business park.
“Our next chapter begins now,” Lentz said.
Plano was selected from a list of 100 possible sites largely for its “great quality of life,” cultural opportunities and proximity to transportation hubs, he said.
Lentz, who recently bought a house in Westlake and wore a new pair of black cowboy boots to the event, said his decision to come to Texas was reaffirmed recently.
A few days after he and a Japanese executive had dinner at a restaurant in Plano, he received a handwritten note from the waiter thanking him for moving the company to Plano.
“In all the dinners I’ve had in restaurants over the years, I’ve never gotten anything like that,” Lentz said.