Brett Wood is president of Toyota Material Handling, U.S.A., Inc. (TMHU), the number one selling full-line lift truck supplier in the United States. He is responsible for all operations at TMHU. Wood also serves on the TMHU board.

Wood formerly served as the company’s vice president of marketing, product and strategic planning and training operations and previously oversaw dealer development. He has been influential in identifying the trends and requirements of the material handling industry and developing Toyota products and corporate strategies that meet U.S. lift truck users’ needs.

A TMHU associate since 1989, Wood has held numerous managerial and technical support positions, including market application engineer, senior product planning engineer, technical services manager, electric product planning manager, sales training manager and product planning manager. Prior to joining Toyota, Wood held engineering positions with IBM Corp. and Northrop Aerospace, where he earned the prestigious recognition of "Engineer of the Year."

He has served as the chairman of the General Engineering Committee for the Industrial Truck Association (ITA) and is now a member of the advisory committee for that same group. Wood is currently a member of both Modern Materials Handling magazine’s editorial advisory board and the Electric Power Research Institute’s Industry Advisory Council.

Wood has a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. He also is president of the Coast Soccer League, and he and his wife, Jamie, reside in Manhattan Beach, Calif., with their daughter, Madison.