(US and Canada) Toyota Connected North America (TCNA) has announced that Brian Kursar, currently Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of TCNA and Toyota Motor North America (TMNA), will transition into a new role at the end of the year. Kursar has been appointed Group Vice President and Head of AI at TMNA, where he will lead North American AI strategy. In addition, he will take on a leadership role at the Toyota Research Institute (TRI) to support Toyota’s Global AI Accelerator (GAIA) program.

Kursar is also a member of TCNA’s board of directors and participates in the Global Digital Transformation Technology and Software First steering committees, alongside members from Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC), TMNA, TCNA, Woven Planet, Toyota Systems, and Toyota Coniq.

In his role as Group VP and CTO of Digital Technology, Kursar has driven global digital transformation and technology modernization efforts, guided by software- and cloud-first principles. He has championed the adoption of a data-driven culture across Toyota’s divisions to foster innovation and transformation on a global scale.

Kursar joined Toyota in 2002 and has held multiple technology-focused roles across vehicle supply chain, enterprise architecture, data engineering, advanced analytics, product quality, incentives, social media, R&D, and customer experience. His achievements include delivering Toyota’s first big data platform in 2013 and establishing the Data Science and Advanced Analytics practice in 2015 to support the company-wide Customer 360 initiative.