Toyota Material Handling (TMH) has announced that president and chief executive officer Jeff Rufener will retire at the end of this month. The company has selected senior vice president of sales Bill Finerty to succeed Rufener, effective 1 January 2022.

“On behalf of the entire Toyota family, we would like to thank Jeff for his leadership and impact during his 10 years with the company,” says Brett Wood, president and CEO of Toyota Material Handling North America and senior executive officer of Toyota Industries Corporation (TICO). “Jeff led TMH through some of the largest, most transformational challenges in history, and he did so with grace, with empathy and with compassion. He embraced each challenge, and always saw the positive opportunity in change.”

Rufener joined TMH in 2011 after more than 30 years with Mitsubishi Caterpillar Forklift America. During his tenure at TMH, he oversaw the move of the company’s headquarters from California to Indiana and multiple expansions of TMH’s Indiana campus. Rufener also managed the integration of Toyota’s two Columbus-based companies – Toyota Material Handling USA (TMHU) and Toyota Industrial Equipment Manufacturing (TIEM) – into a single company in 2020.

During Rufener’s tenure, TICO made key strategic acquisitions such as Bastian Solutions and Vanderlande to enter the automation sector; Hoist to expand Toyota’s heavy-duty lift truck offering; and Toyota Commercial Finance. Rufener also helped TMH round out its product offering with the launch of many new electric models to ensure the organisation continues to lead for decades to come.

Rufener has always been a respected leader in the materials handling industry, previously serving as the president of the Industrial Truck Association and as the first chairman of the National Forklift Safety Day taskforce.

Rufener is thankful for the honour of leading TMH and thanks associates, dealers, suppliers and customers “whose hard work and dedication have allowed us to achieve great things”.

“When I joined Toyota, I thought I was taking the best job in the forklift industry. Ten years later, I can tell you I know it’s the best job in the industry. This brand, this culture, this product line, and this group of Toyota dealers – all of those things make it the best position I could ever ask for.”

Finerty will take over from Rufener after more than five years leading the company’s sales teams. As senior VP of sales, Finerty also oversaw the TMH customer network and dealer network development, and he chairs the board of directors for TMH’s equity-owned dealerships and the company’s Heavy Duty Division.

Under Finerty’s leadership, TMH has reached records in sales, profit and marketshare.

Finerty has more than 30 years of industry involvement and previously held several executive leadership roles at Caterpillar.

Jaksa Pejnovic will succeed Finerty to become TMH’s vice president of sales and marketing, also effective 1 January. Pejnovic has been with Toyota since 2013 and joined the TMH executive team in 2016 as the director of finance, pricing and strategic planning. Prior to joining TMH, Pejnovic spent 12 years at CNO Financial Group in a number of finance and accounting positions.