Toyota announced a series of leadership changes Wednesday, including a new president for its Georgetown plant, the automaker's largest in North America.

President Steve St. Angelo, who was named the company's chief quality officer for North America recently, has been promoted to chairman of the plant. Taking his position, which focuses more on daily operations, will be Wil James, who started with the plant in 1987.

"Wil has a lot of history with us, and we're really excited about him coming back," said spokesman Rick Hesterberg.

In 2006, James left Georgetown to take a position with a wholly owned parts manufacturing subsidiary in California. A year later, he became senior vice president of Toyota's plant in Princeton, Ind.

The leadership shuffle also included naming new presidents for the Indiana plant, as well as plants in Texas and Canada and the new plant in Mississippi. Toyota billed the move as a way of moving more local leaders into positions, as the new leaders at the Indiana and Texas plants replace Japanese plant presidents.

"Several years ago, we said we need to really develop our American work force, and some of that is being reflected here as they assume these roles," Hesterberg said.

The move also allows St. Angelo and his counterpart in Canada, who was also named chairman of the plant in Ontario, "the chance to focus more on the broader issues facing our company," Hesterberg said.