, Columnist
Nissan Finally Breaks With the Carlos Ghosn Era
The departure of Hiroto Saikawa allows executives to focus on the business of making and selling cars.
Cleaning the decks.
Photographer: MARTIN BUREAU/AFPThis article is for subscribers only.
The resignation of Hiroto Saikawa, chief executive of Nissan Motor Co. gives the embattled Japanese carmaker a much needed opportunity to clean decks and move on.
Ever since the shock arrest of the company’s chairman Carlos Ghosn almost a year ago, the Japanese auto giant has been in permanent crisis mode and ties with its French alliance partner Renault SA have frayed. To steer it through that period Nissan needed a leader with deft political skills who embodied a clean break with the Ghosn era. Saikawa – a Ghosn appointee – wasn’t it.