Saikawa Replaces Ghosn for Nissan North America

Washington DC March 19, 2007; The AIADA newsletter reported that Nissan North America has a new boss. Last week, Hiroto Saikawa, the parent corporation's 53-year-old executive vice president for purchasing, was named head of U.S. operations, replacing Carlos Ghosn.

Saikawa will wrestle with a host of pressing issues: soft U.S. sales, eroding profits, and untested leadership. Ghosn was acclaimed for a stunning turnaround of Nissan starting in 2000. But for the past two years he also has been CEO of struggling Renault SA and Nissan, while he headed an executive committee that managed North American operations. Saikawa now heads that committee.

Ghosn remains CEO of Nissan and Renault. Automotive News reports that in 2003 Nissan spent $1.4 billion to open a plant in Canton, Miss. that would put Nissan head to head with the Detroit 3 on full-sized pickups and SUVs.

But high gasoline prices have hurt sales of full-sized pickups and SUVs. Saikawa must now lead the North American team to find new products to fill Canton's underused 400,000-unit-a-year production capacity.

The company said this month that it may back-burner a plan to move even deeper into the market by creating half-ton and one-ton pickups.