Obviously I had a lot of history at Indiana.
I knew the people,
so it's a natural fit for me
to be able to come back as the president.
But it's an extreme honor, an extreme responsibility
that I don't take lightly.
I think, you know, Millie put us on the path for success.
You know, she really--she allowed us
to share our dreams and our ambitions on what we wanted the launch to look like.
So we set the pathway, she helped guide us
and challenged us in areas that she felt weren't strong enough
and we had to respond to those things.
I think she did a great job.
So Millie and me are very good friends.
Millie gave me plenty of advice.
We talk to each other all the time.
We were able to spend a lot of time together
talking about what she saw as the final push that needed to happen
and then I took that, really, just and moved with it after she left.
We brought different skill sets,
from weld, plastic shop, paint shop,
so other NAMCs with different skill sets came to Indiana
to really support each shop
for that final preparation.
Yeah, there were some times there when we were looking at it, going,
"Wow, this is a huge hill to climb and I don't know if we're gonna make it."
But I think that was-- what was really cool
was just how every time we would call for help,
somebody would show up.
Whether it be people from the other plants,
whether it be Canada, whether it be Texas, Kentucky, Mississippi.
There was probably well over 200 people that were brought in
from all over the world.
We brought in engineers, we brought in maintenance folks,
we brought in production team members and team leaders, you know,
to help out with some of the changeover activity
and some of the training that we had to do.
You know, I went into every shop, spent a lot of time on the floor
talking to the team members, listening to their concerns
and what did they need here at the final end
to be able to make them successful,
and through just listening and spending, you know,
hours and hours on the floor,
I could understand how far they'd come,
but what we needed to really just get to the final point.
Leah never stopped being TMMI.
She was one of the first people to greet me when I moved to Haubstadt, right?
So her family has adopted me and my family and we're tight.
So, you know, I'd see her at church on the weekends
or see her in town over the weekends
when she would come home
and definitely I could tell that there was always a TMMI spirit within her.
I'm from right here in Haubstadt, Indiana, born and raised.
So where Haubstadt's located is basically about ten miles south of the plant.
Really, it takes me ten minutes to get to work.
So growing up in this area, everybody knew everybody.
You know, we would go out, ride our bikes all day long,
come back for lunch.
My dad started a restaurant here in Haubstadt named Haub Steakhouse back in 1973.
I first started working there when I was in like third grade,
washing dishes by hand.
All my kids worked there, all four of 'em have worked there.
My dad passed away, it'll be three years this April.
It was basically three months after I moved to West Virginia
he passed away.
I feel like it was my second home
but it's definitely not like here in Indiana,
because for me, I think home is where family is.
Many people come up to me and tell me how proud my dad would have been
and I know, I know he knows.
I know he's watching.
(soft music and singing)
Whoa!
There we go.
It's just a real honor for us to know that as Toyota gets stronger,
Indiana gets stronger.
As Indiana gets stronger, Toyota gets stronger.
And that is a real source of pride for Hoosiers of all stripes.
Nothing gives me more pleasure
than to come to one of our plants
and launch a new vehicle because you see
the culmination of all the hard work and effort
of each team member coming together
to make a great vehicle like this Highlander.
A lot goes into building a great vehicle.
But we didn't just put in a lot of effort,
we put everything we had into making sure
that we delivered the best new Highlander ever
for our customers.
Over the past several years,
the Indiana team put tens of thousands of hours
into bringing this product to life.
And on top of that,
our team members put hours into training
months before we even touched the first trial vehicle.
All that work, all the new investments,
were done for one reason:
our customers.
You see today, it's more than just a vehicle,
it's about what a vehicle can do.
$1.3 billion investment in this plant in the last two years,
more than 7,000 jobs that will be here years from now,
and a million-dollar program we believe will be transformative
for our community and for generations to come.
This is what a vehicle can do.
We added another 150 more jobs
for a total of 550 new jobs created as a result of this project.
Today, our employment at this plant is the highest it's ever been
at more than 7,000 team members.
I like to say we're the second largest city in Gibson County.
We can build more Highlanders than ever before
to meet the demand of our loyal customers.
And our total plant investment since 1996, the groundbreaking,
now exceeds $5 billion.
That's amazing.
The jobs that we're offering, they're careers,
they're lifelong careers.
And it is amazing to see that generation after generation
are coming through that door
since when we opened in 1997.
I owe them the fact that they will have job security and a long career
to do whatever they feel they want to do.
I owe them the opportunity to be able to spread their wings
and show what they can do.