Toyota Motor Corp. on Friday named members of its new advisory board on race relations in North America, an initiative that is likely to influence other Japanese firms doing business in the United States.
The North American Diversity Advisory Board, as it is formally titled, was set up last summer as part of Toyota's 10-year, $7.8 billion diversity and job training initiative.
The program was created in response to criticisms from civil rights leader Jesse Jackson and his PUSH/Rainbow Coalition that Toyota had engaged in discriminatory advertising against African-Americans.
The Toyota race advisory board, which is expected to meet with senior management several times a year, will be chaired by Alexis Herman, the first African-American to serve as U.S. secretary of labor under the administration of Bill Clinton and currently chief executive officer of New Ventures, Inc.