Cars and Drivers

Carlos Ghosn Finally Kicked Out of Nissan

Douglas A. McIntyre

Published: April 8, 2019 4:27 am

Last Updated: January 6, 2020 5:37 am

After being arrested an accused of corporate malfeasance, Nissan and Renault chief Carlos Ghosn was officially pushed off the Nissan board. The action happened at what Nissan called an “extraordinary shareholders meeting,” attended by 4,119 shareholders. The meeting lasted over two hours.

Nissan management put out a statement that said:

… shareholders approved all the resolutions:

Item 1: Discharge of director Carlos Ghosn
Item 2: Discharge of director Greg Kelly
Item 3: Appointment of Jean-Dominique Senard as director, on the condition that Item 1 is approved

At one point not long ago, Ghosn was considered by many as the preeminent auto CEO in the world, having stitched together an alliance between the French Renault and Japan-based Nissan. What became known as his “Alliance” has started to fall apart. Nissan tried to assure shareholders this would not happen:

Nissan sees building the best possible corporate governance structure as an urgent task and is working on swift implementation of a three statutory-committee format (nomination, compensation and audit). In addition, Nissan is working with Alliance partners Renault and Mitsubishi Motors to stabilize the Alliance, and through proactive leveraging of Alliance benefits, further stabilize the company’s operations.

However, many industry watchers believe that the fracture caused by his prosecution and ouster cannot be repaired.