The British born chief operating officer of Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (MMC), Trevor Mann, is to leave the automaker on 31 March, according to a press statement, and will be replaced by Ashwani Gupta.
Vincent Gobee, an MMC corporate vice president in charge of product strategy, is also out on 31 March. He reportedly was appointed to MMC by recently ousted Alliance and Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn after earlier heading Nissan's Datsun unit.
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In a statement, the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance said Denis Le Vot would move to Paris to head the Alliance LCV business unit, effective 1 April, replacing Gupta who in turn would replace Mann as COO of MMC. Gupta would be based in Tokyo and report to MMC CEO Osamu Masuko.
Le Vot would report to Thierry Bollore, Groupe Renault CEO and Hiroto Saikawa, Nissan Motor Company CEO and joint Renault's management committee.
He is currently senior vice president and chairman of Nissan North America.
"Denis Le Vot's role is aimed at expanding LCV market leadership under a single business organisation, unleashing the full potential of Groupe Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi," the statement said.
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By GlobalDataNissan North America said in a separate statement Jose Luis Valls, a Nissan Motor SVP and vice chairman of North America, would replace Le Vot as NA chairman.
Valls has more than 20 years of experience in the automotive industry and joined Nissan in 2011. He was previously chairman of the company's Latin America region and has also served as president of Nissan operations in Mexico.
A replacement for Valls to head US marketing and sales operations will be named soon.
Nissan Motor also said Arun Bajaj had left the company last Monday (11 March). Automotive News reported he had been an SVP in charge of HR at the alliance and had been on leave of absence since January, during which time he cooperated with Carlos Ghosn's Japanese prosecutors.
Bloomberg noted the shuffling of key executives underscored the unwinding of a power structure built up during almost two decades by Ghosn, who is accused of falsifying financial records and breach of trust by Japanese prosecutors. That culminated in the formation this week of a new governance board for the three-way alliance.
According to his LinkedIn entry, Mann, who holds a CBE awarded by the British government, joined Nissan in 1985, worked through various manufacturing-related positions, and finally advanced to managing director and plant manager of Nissan Motor Manufacturing UK in Sunderland.
In 2007, he was named SVP responsible for manufacturing, supply chain management and purchasing of Nissan's European business.
In 2012, he became a SVP for global supply chain and, in 2013, was promoted to EVP and chairman of the management committee for Africa, Middle East, India & Europe.
A year later he was promoted to Nissan Motor chief performance officer based in Yokohama, Japan and, from November 2016, following Nissan's acquisition of MMC shares, was appointed COO of MMC.
