The New York Times > Business > World Business > Nissan Names Executive to No. 2 Job
This may be PSA's worst nightmare come into reality. Bernie Kaye
February 22, 2005
Nissan Names Executive to No. 2 Job
By TODD ZAUN
OKYO, Feb. 21 - Nissan Motor named a longtime company executive to the No. 2 position on Monday as its chief executive, Carlos Ghosn, prepared to take on the task of leading two major automakers at once.
Nissan named Toshiyuki Shiga, 51, chief operating officer starting in April, a month before Mr. Ghosn is to begin the daunting job of running one of the largest carmakers in Japan while also leading one of the largest in Europe, the French carmaker Renault.
With the 50-year-old Mr. Ghosn splitting his time between Tokyo and Paris, Mr. Shiga's job will take on added importance. While Mr. Ghosn will continue to make the big, strategic decisions for Nissan, Mr. Shiga, who has 29 years with the company, will assume much of the day-to-day responsibility for running it.
"The style of decision-making will probably not change at all: Ghosn will still decide everything," said Koji Endo, an analyst at Credit Suisse First Boston Securities.
Mr. Ghosn engineered one of the most striking recoveries of a major corporation after he was dispatched by Renault to lead Nissan in 1999. When Mr. Ghosn arrived, the company was careering toward bankruptcy; after years of cost-cutting and a string of new designs, Nissan is now one of the world's most profitable carmakers. Renault controls Nissan through its 44 percent stake in the company.
Mr. Shiga is currently a senior vice president in charge of general overseas markets, that is, Nissan's foreign markets excluding the United States, Japan and Europe. He is best known for helping to lead Nissan's aggressive push into China. He helped form the 50-50 joint venture with Dongfeng Motor of China, through which Nissan aims to more than double its sales in China to 620,000 vehicles by 2007.
Mr. Shiga had long been a contender for chief operating officer, and was chosen over several more senior executives.
Mr. Ghosn, a Brazilian-born French citizen, will replace Louis Schweitzer as Renault's chief executive in May, while retaining the titles of chief and president of Nissan. Together Renault and Nissan sell almost 5.5 million cars a year. If they were combined - something Mr. Ghosn has said he has no current plans to do - the company would be the fourth-largest carmaker in the world behind General Motors, Toyota and Ford.
Nissan and Renault already have a joint purchasing operation to leverage their combined buying power to get the best deals from suppliers. They also share many of their engine and chassis designs to reduce development costs.
Mr. Shiga's appointment was just one of several changes in Nissan's top management announced Monday. Nissan also said that Patrick Pelata, a top lieutenant to Mr. Ghosn who masterminded major changes in the Nissan lineup, would return to Renault.
Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company | Home | Privacy Policy | Search | Corrections | RSS | Help | Back to Top
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
- Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~-->
Give the gift of life to a sick child.
Support St. Jude Children's Research Hospital's 'Thanks & Giving.'
http://us.click.yahoo.com/5iY7fA/6WnJAA/Y3ZIAA/4jLplB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~->
Recommended format for your email subject lines:
Model # [Model Letters] Year Subject
Examples:
505 88 V6 Mileage
405 Mi16 89 Ignition Coil source?
To unsubscribe from this list send a blank email message to PEUGEOT-L-UNSUBSCRIBE@EGROUPS.COM
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/peugeot-L/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
peugeot-L-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
Received on Tue Feb 22 07:06:08 2005
