The change in the high -level management team was considered necessary due to the “challenges on the scale of Nissan industry and performance”
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- Makoto Uchida, president and chief executive officer of Nissan since 2019, has left his role.
- Ivan Espinosa, current planning director, will replace Uchida, from April 1.
- The Nissan board of directors has also decided on a new series of management changes.
Nissan has announced major changes to his management team, underlined by the resignation of his CEO, Makoto Uchida.
According to the official announcement, the director of town planning of Nissan, Ivan Espinosa, is promoted to an executive officer, president and chief representative management, from April 1, 2025. Espinosa will replace Uchida, who spent more than five years in the role.
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Yasushi Kimura, an independent external administrator and chairman of the board of directors, said: “Given the challenges on the scale of Nissan industry and performance, we think it is necessary and appropriate to change the management team. Nissan is in the middle of the transformation. We believe that we have chosen the right person who qualified to lead the company in these times. »»
For his part, Uchida said: “I said that my resignation is to be decided by the board of directors. As I said last month, I believe that clarifying the director of Nissan as soon as possible and quickly spending the stick to my successor is the way to take responsibility as the CEO of the company. To this end, I tried to improve the performance of Nissan.
“However, since we revealed the recovery actions last fall, people not only outside the company but also inside, began to question my responsibility. Nissan’s absolute priority today is to break the current situation as quickly as possible and bring the business back to the growth track ”.
Uchida took over Nissan’s reigns in 2019, shortly after the Carlos Ghosn scandal. His leadership brought profits in 2022 and 2023, although 2024 was a difficult year with the drop in sales and bad financial results. This led to the announcement of a restructuring plan, including production cuts and dismissals.
The recent collapse in merger talks with Honda Over Control from Nissan to search for other partners in order to survive. At the same time, the automaker is quite vulnerable to the prices offered by Donald Trump for Japanese imports, we are his biggest market.
All these problems contributed to the departure of the CEO, who will remain administrator until the annual general meeting of shareholders in June 2025.
More management changes
Nissan has also announced major changes to its executive committee, expanding the role of certain leaders and by replacing others. This is the second cycle of reshuffle of management after the previous changes from January 1.
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In addition to Makoto Uchida, other high -ranking leaders who will leave Nissan include Kunio Nakaguro (Head of Technology), Hideyuki Sakamoto (Monozukuri chief and managing director, manager of the manufacturing and management of the supply chain), Asako Hoshino (Chief Brand & Customer Officer) and Hideaki Watanabe (Chief Strategy & Corporate Affairs Officer).
According to the Japanese car manufacturer, the “significantly renewed leadership range” will help achieve its “short and mid-term objectives while positioning it for long-term growth”. Below, you can watch the online press conference that broadcast earlier during the day.
