SAAE Fellow Andrew Kirby, the President and CEO of Toyota SA Motors, presented the 2019 Hendrik van der Bijl Memorial Lecture on 9 October 2019 in the Senate Hall of the University of Pretoria. The title of his lecture was Can the South African Automotive Industry contribute to the reindustrialisation of our country?

After graduating as a Mechanical Engineer from the University of Cape Town in 1988, Andrew joined Anglo American to pursue engineering in the Gold Mining Industry. After gaining his Registration as Professional Engineer he joined the Service Division of BMW South Africa. After completing an executive PMD course at the Harvard Business School he moved to the USA where he worked for BMW North America for three years. He returned to South Africa in 2000 where he headed up Product Planning, Parts Operations and Brand Management at BMW SA. In 2005 he joined Toyota South Africa Motors as Senior Vice President: Sales and Marketing, managing the Toyota, Lexus and Hino brands. At the beginning of 2011 he moved to Japan to take on global responsibilities for managing and leading the Lexus brand (offices in Nagoya, Toyota City and Tokyo). He lived in Nagoya with his family and returned to South Africa in July 2013. On his return from Japan, he took over responsibility for the Corporate Administration team with offices in Sandton, Johannesburg, and Prospecton in Durban where the Toyota Manufacturing facility is based. In January 2016 he was appointed Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, assuming responsibilities for all operations, and in April 2016 he was appointed President and CEO. In January 2018 he was elected as President of NAAMSA. Andrew is a Director of the Boards of Toyota South Africa and of Toyota South Africa Motors.