Nissan is trying to turn its poor fortunes around, and is bringing in a slate of new leadership to do it.
After five troubled years at the helm of Nissan Motor Company, Makoto Uchida will step down as its CEO effective April 1. In his place, the automaker announced its current chief planning officer Ivan Espinosa will take the reins as its new president and CEO.
This appointment marks the fourth chief executive Nissan’s had in eight years. Espinosa, for his part, has been at Nissan since 2003, serving roles in Mexico and Asia before becoming its planning head in 2017. “I grew up in Nissan,” he told reporters at a press conference following the announcement, “and I’ve spent many years working in divisions across the globe…this career has shaped my understanding of what makes Nissan unique and valuable. I sincerely believe Nissan has so much more potential than what we are seeing today.”
What we are seeing today is an automaker in dire straits. Late last year, insiders told the press that the company had 12-14 months to survive, while outgoing CEO Uchida noted the company would not make it much longer without significant investment.
“Nissan is in the midst of a transformation, and we believe [Espinosa] is the right person to lead the company in these times,” said chairman of the board Yasushi Kimura.
After the company’s ambitious plans to merge with Honda crumbled last month, it seems the writing was on the wall for Uchida as well as Nissan’s other executives. In addition to his departure, chief technology officer Kunio Nakaguro, manufacturing and supply chain management executive Hideyuki Sakamoto, chief brand officer Asako Hoshino and chief strategy and corporate affairs officer Hideaki Watanabe will all step down on March 31.
Nissan announced it would also make major changes within its executive committee, beyond appointing direct replacements for those executives, and make other key management appointments as Espinosa takes the top spot in April.
With this scale of reshuffling, we’ll have to see what substantial changes Nissan makes to right the ship over the coming months. Investors gained a little bit of confidence this week, first upon louder rumors of Uchida’s departure as well as a new CEO appointment this week. On Tuesday, Nissan’s stock price rallied by about 8%.
