The End of the Cult of Ghosn
With the head of Nissan and Renault mired in a pay scandal, their relationship is under threat.
Carlos Ghosn
Photographer: Marlene Awaad/Bloomberg
Carlos Ghosn has long been a larger-than-life figure in the auto industry, a globe-trotting force who developed and defended the Renault-Nissan alliance in the face of squabbling shareholders and competing government interests. On Nov. 19 the myth of Ghosn unraveled. He was arrested in Tokyo on allegations of hiding the true amount of his pay from securities regulators in what Nissan Motor Co., where he was chief executive officer from 2001 to 2017 and later chairman, called years of serious misconduct. The news threatened an abrupt end to one of the auto world’s most illustrious careers and throws the future of the Franco-Japanese auto alliance into doubt.
At a late-night press conference after the charges were revealed, Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa—a former Ghosn confidant—painted a dark picture of an executive with too much power and too little oversight, which he said spurred the alleged misconduct. “It was regrettable, but I more strongly felt indignation and personal despair,” Saikawa said, sitting alone behind a desk at Nissan’s Yokohama headquarters. The CEO also took a swipe at the Renault-Nissan partnership, saying the Japanese market had been undervalued and some product decisions biased.