Carlos Ghosn Steps Back From Nissan CEO Role
Co-CEO Hiroto Saikawa to replace Ghosn, who will remain chairman of auto maker
Carlos Ghosn is leaving his chief executive role at Nissan Motor Co., a company he rescued from near-collapse and led for nearly two decades, to take a broader oversight role of the alliance that links Nissan with Renault SA and Mitsubishi Motors Corp.
Mr. Ghosn, 62, will hand the reins at Nissan in April to Hiroto Saikawa, his recently appointed co-CEO, the company said Thursday in Japan. Mr. Ghosn will remain chairman of the Japanese auto company and is expected to stay active in charting Nissan’s path.
“There comes a time where you have to make some choices. I chose to pass the baton at Nissan,” Mr. Ghosn said in an interview Thursday in Tokyo.
Born in Brazil to Lebanese parents and educated in France, Mr. Ghosn is revered in the global auto industry for engineering Nissan’s comeback and its alliance with Renault, a model in the car industry where the need for investment in new technology has increasingly outpaced the ability of any single company to respond.
The Nissan CEO handover addresses one part of the transition to a post-Ghosn era at the alliance, but the largest questions remain unresolved. One is whether the current shareholding arrangement—in which Renault holds 43% of Nissan and Nissan holds 15% of Renault—is sustainable. The other is whether anyone can replicate the role Mr. Ghosn has built as a globe-trotting leader of both companies.
Pressure is likely to grow on Nissan and Renault to merge, analysts say. “That pressure is coming from the French government, and Renault management people. but Ghosn has been protecting Nissan,” said Takaki Nakanishi, a Japanese auto analyst who owns his own research firm.