DETROIT (AP) — Chrysler LLC pulled off a major coup Thursday, hiring away Jim Press, Toyota Motor Corp.'s top North American executive, to run its sales and marketing operations.

 

Press, 60, formerly president and chief operating officer for Toyota in North America and the first non-Japanese member of the auto giant's board of directors, will become Chrysler vice chairman and president.

 

He joins new Chairman and CEO Robert Nardelli and Tom LaSorda, vice chairman and president, as Chrysler's top management team.

 

LaSorda will run the company's manufacturing and purchasing operations, while Press will handle sales, marketing and product strategy, said company spokesman Mike Aberlich.

 

Hiring Press is Chrysler's second major executive announcement since August, when private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP took control of 80.1 percent of the company from DaimlerChrysler AG. Cerberus announced Aug. 6 that Nardelli, a former Home Depot Inc. CEO, would become Chrysler's Chairman and CEO.

 

Press' resignation will be effective Sept. 14, Toyota said.

 

''Tom LaSorda and I are thrilled that one of the most successful executives in the history of the auto industry has joined our leadership team at the New Chrysler,'' Nardelli said in a statement.

 

Toyota said Shigeru Hayakawa, a Japanese veteran at the company and Toyota managing officer, would be the new president of Toyota North America.

 

''Toyota has been the centerpiece of my life. This was the most difficult decision I have made,'' Press said in a statement.

 

The promotion of Press at Toyota, an American who has been with Toyota for 37 years, had been widely seen as furthering the company's effort to bolster its standing as a multinational corporation.

 

''Jim has played a significant role in strengthening Toyota's presence in the U.S,'' Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe said. ''I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to all he has done for Toyota.''

 

Press will be asked to help turn things around at Chrysler, which has had problems of late in its sales and marketing operations.

 

Press comes to Chrysler with a great record of success at Toyota, which has seen continued sales increases in the U.S. for the past several years. The hiring comes at a time when Chrysler's sales have been dropping and it has tried to repair fractured relations with its dealers.

 

''You can't argue with the level of success that Toyota has had,'' Aberlich said. ''The way they've developed the car side of the business, the way they've developed their relationships with dealers.''

 

Aberlich said hiring Press is no reflection on LaSorda, who was demoted from chairman and CEO when Nardelli was hired.

 

''The guy is such a remarkable get that you're going to do it,'' Aberlich said of Press, equating the hiring with a baseball team bringing another power hitter onto its roster.

 

Chrysler would not comment on Press' compensation package, and because it now is a private company, details likely will be kept quiet.

 

But Aberlich said the compensation will be tied to Chrysler's performance.

 

''He'll help turn us around, and he'll be rewarded,'' Aberlich said.

 

Also in August, Chrysler hired away a top marketing executive from Toyota's Lexus luxury brand. Deborah Wahl Meyer, 44, was named vice president and chief marketing officer.

 

Chrysler and its financial arm made a $549 million net profit in the second quarter but would have posted an operating loss were it not for accounting changes due to the sale to Cerberus. But Chrysler's $618 million loss in 2006 sparked a major restructuring and eventually the sale.

 

Press, who makes no secret of his admiration for Toyota's Japanese cultural virtues as a key force of the automaker's strength, has been the most visible figure in the U.S. for the manufacturer of the Camry sedan, Prius hybrid and Lexus luxury models.

 

As head of Toyota Motor Sales USA, Press led Toyota's rapid sales climb from a 9.3 percent market share in the U.S. in 2000 to 13.1 percent in 2005.

 

Last year, Press become the first non-Japanese president of Toyota Motor North America Inc., overseeing sales and engineering divisions as well as 12 manufacturing plants in the U.S. and Canada.

 

Press joined the Toyota board as part of an expansion of the board from 25 to 30 members. He joined Toyota in 1970 after leaving Ford Motor Co.

 

But Press' appointment also has been seen as a way Toyota has sought to avert a backlash for its success at a time when U.S. automakers, including Chrysler, are struggling.

 

Hiroshi Okuda, former president of Toyota and now adviser, had expressed concern about a possible backlash.

 

He suggested months before Press' appointment that adding a foreign board member and increasing foreign ownership as ways the company could show it was international and avoid the kind of backlash seen during the 1980s when American sentiment turned against Toyota and other Japanese automakers.

 

Until Press' appointment, Toyota's 25-member board had been all Japanese. The number of board members was increased to 30 this year.

 

Toyota exports nearly half of the vehicles it sells from Japan, up from about 38 percent in 2005 because of a surge in U.S. demand and the inability of U.S. factories to keep up with demand.