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Carlos Ghosn

Businessman and automotive executive (born 1954) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Carlos Ghosn
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Carlos Ghosn (/ɡoʊn/;[1] French: [kaʁlɔs ɡon]; Arabic: كارلوس غصن; Lebanese Arabic pronunciation: ['kaːrlos 'ɣosˤn], born 9 March 1954) is a businessman and former automotive executive. He was the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Michelin North America, chairman and CEO of Renault, chairman of AvtoVAZ, chairman and CEO of Nissan, and chairman of Mitsubishi Motors.[2][3][4]

Quick facts Born, Citizenship ...

Ghosn began his professional career in 1978 at Michelin, Europe’s largest tire manufacturer. Over the course of 18 years at the company, he held a variety of leadership roles, including overseeing operations in South America. In 1999, following Renault's acquisition of a major stake in the struggling Japanese automaker Nissan, Ghosn moved to Japan to oversee its recovery. As chief operating officer, and later chief executive officer, he implemented a series of restructuring measures aimed at improving Nissan’s financial performance. Under his leadership, Nissan returned to profitability and strengthened its position in the global market. In 2005, Ghosn also became CEO of Renault, holding top executive roles at both companies simultaneously. In 2016, he additionally became chairman of Mitsubishi Motors after Nissan acquired a controlling interest in the company, further expanding his influence in the automotive sector.

In 2018, he was arrested in Japan on suspicion of financial misconduct at Nissan, having been accused of understating his annual salary and misusing company funds. In 2019, while under house arrest awaiting trial, he escaped from Japan by concealing himself inside a large box, which was shipped as freight on a private jet.[5][6]

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Early life and education

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Ghosn's grandfather was Bichara Ghosn, a Maronite Catholic who emigrated from Ajaltoun,[7] French Mandate Lebanon to Brazil at the age of 13, eventually settling in remote Guaporé, Rondônia, near the border between Brazil and Bolivia.[8] Bichara Ghosn was an entrepreneur and eventually headed several companies, in businesses including the rubber trade, the sale and purchase of agricultural products, and aviation.[9] His son Jorge Ghosn married Rose Jazzar, a Nigerian-born Lebanese woman[10] whose family came from Miziara in Lebanon then went to Brazil,[7] where they settled in Porto Velho, the state capital of Rondônia, and had four children.[11]

Carlos' father, Jorge Ghosn (died 2006) was a diamond trader and worked in the airline industry. Jorge was convicted of murdering a priest in Sawfar, Lebanon in 1960.[12] Jorge fled to Brazil in 1975 at the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War.[13][14]

Carlos Ghosn was born on 9 March 1954, in Porto Velho.[11][15][16] When he was about two years old he became sick after drinking unsanitary water, and his mother moved with him to Rio de Janeiro.[11] He did not fully recover there, and in 1960, when Ghosn was six years old, he and his mother and sister moved to Beirut, Lebanon, where his grandmother and two other sisters lived.[11]

Ghosn completed his secondary school studies in Lebanon, at the Jesuit school Collège Notre-Dame de Jamhour. He then completed his classes préparatoires in Paris, at the Collège Stanislas and the Lycée Saint-Louis.[17] He graduated as an engineer from the École Polytechnique in 1974 and the École des Mines de Paris in 1978.[15][18][19]

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Career

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Michelin

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Carlos Ghosn answers reporters' questions at the Nissan factory in Kyushu, Japan (September 2011).

After graduation in 1978, Ghosn spent 18 years at Michelin, Europe's largest tyre maker, initially training and working in several plants in France and Germany.[15][20] In 1981, he became plant manager in Le Puy-en-Velay, France.[15][21] In 1984 he was named head of research and development for the company's industrial tyre division.[15][22]

In 1985, when Ghosn was 30 years old, he was appointed chief operating officer (COO) of Michelin's South American operations.[15][23] He returned to Rio de Janeiro, reporting directly to François Michelin, who tasked Ghosn with turning around the operation, which was unprofitable and struggling under Brazil's hyperinflation.[23][24] Ghosn formed cross-functional management teams to determine best practices among the French, Brazilian, and other nationalities working in the South American division.[25] The multicultural experience in Brazil formed the basis of his cross-cultural management style and emphasis on diversity as a core business asset.[25][26] "You learn from diversity ... but you're comforted by commonality", Ghosn has said.[27] The division returned to profitability in two years.[25][28][29]

After turning around Michelin's South American operations, Ghosn was appointed president and COO of Michelin North America in 1989, and moved to Greenville, South Carolina, with his family.[30] He was promoted to CEO of Michelin North America in 1990.[25][30] He presided over the restructuring of the company after its acquisition of the Uniroyal Goodrich Tyre Company.[15][31]

Post-privatisation Renault

In 1996, Ghosn became executive vice president in charge of purchasing, advanced research, engineering and development, powertrain operations, and manufacturing at Renault; and he was also in charge of Renault's South American division, located in the Mercosur.[15][32] Ghosn's radical restructuring of Renault successfully contributed to profitability of the company over 1997.[33][34] His reputation of successful performance under François Michelin was repeated under the first CEO of the freshly privatized Renault.

Nissan and the Renault–Nissan Alliance

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Nissan Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn visited Norway to launch the new Nissan LEAF (8 April 2013).
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Ghosn with Vladimir Putin in 2006

In March 1999, Renault and Nissan formed the Renault–Nissan Alliance, and in May 1999 Renault purchased a 36.8% stake in Nissan.[35] While maintaining his roles at Renault, Ghosn joined Nissan as its chief operating officer (COO) in June 1999, became its president in June 2000, and was named chief executive officer (CEO) in June 2001.[15] When he joined the company, Nissan had a consolidated interest-bearing net automotive debt of more than $20 billion (more than 2 trillion yen),[24][36] and only three of its 46 models sold in Japan were generating a profit.[37] Reversing the company's sinking fortunes was considered nearly impossible.[38][39][40][41]

Ghosn's "Nissan Revival Plan", announced in October 1999, called for a return to profitability in fiscal year 2000, a profit margin in excess of 4.5% of sales by the end of fiscal year 2002, and a 50% reduction in the current level of debt by the end of fiscal year 2002.[42][43][44] Ghosn promised to resign if these goals were not met.[45] Ghosn's Nissan Revival Plan called for cutting 21,000 Nissan jobs (14% of total workforce), mostly in Japan; shutting five Japanese plants; reducing the number of suppliers and shareholdings; and auctioning off prized assets such as Nissan's aerospace unit.[42][46][47]

Ghosn was the fourth non-Japanese person to lead a Japanese automaker, after Mark Fields, Henry Wallace and James Miller were appointed by Ford to run Mazda in the late 1990s.[48] In addition to cutting jobs, plants, and suppliers, Ghosn spearheaded major and dramatic structural and corporate-culture changes at Nissan. He defied Japanese business etiquette in various ways, including by eliminating seniority-based and age-based promotion, by changing lifetime employment from a guarantee to a desired goal for when the company achieved high performance, and by dismantling Nissan's keiretsu system; an interwoven web of parts suppliers with cross-holdings in Nissan.[49][50][51] When the Nissan Revival Plan was announced, the proposed dismantling of keiretsu earned Ghosn the nickname "keiretsu killer",[52] and The Wall Street Journal quoted a Dresdner Kleinwort Benson analyst in Tokyo as saying Ghosn might become a "target of public outrage" if Nissan threw former affiliates out of its supply chain.[53][54] Ghosn changed Nissan's official company language from Japanese to English, and included executives from Europe and North America in key global strategy sessions for the first time.[55][56]

In the first year of the Nissan Revival Plan, Nissan's consolidated net profit after tax climbed to $2.7 billion for fiscal year 2000,[57] from a consolidated net loss of $6.46 billion in the previous year.[58] Twelve months into his three-year turnaround plan, Nissan had returned to profitability, and within three years it was one of the industry's most profitable auto makers, with operating margins consistently above 9%; more than twice the industry average.[59] The goals of the Nissan Revival Plan were all reached before 31 March 2002.[60]

In May 2002, Ghosn announced his next set of goals for the company, "Nissan 180", a three-year plan for growth based on the numbers 1, 8, and 0: By the end of September 2005, Nissan planned to increase its global sales by one million vehicles; and by the spring of 2005, it was committed to achieving an operating margin of at least 8% and reducing its net automotive debt to zero.[61][62] These goals were all reached:[63] In the spring of 2003, Nissan announced that its net automotive debt was eliminated in fiscal year 2002.[64][65] Nissan's operating profit margin climbed to 11.1% in fiscal year 2003;[66] it had been 1.4% in fiscal year 1999.[67] In October 2005, Nissan announced that its annual sales from 30 September 2004, to 30 September 2005, were more than 3.67 million, up from the 2.6 million vehicles sold in the fiscal year ended March 2002.[68][69]

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Carlos Ghosn unveiled the Nissan GT-R at the Tokyo Motor Show (2007).

In May 2005, Ghosn was named president and chief executive officer of Renault.[15] When he assumed the CEO roles at both Renault and Nissan, Ghosn became the world's first person to simultaneously run two companies on the Fortune Global 500.[70]

In 2005, billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian acquired a 9.9% stake in General Motors (GM), seated one of his representatives on the company's board, and then urged GM to initiate a merger with Renault and Nissan, with Ghosn serving as the new chairman of GM. In 2006, GM's embattled management rebuffed the takeover attempt, and by the end of the year, Kerkorian's Tracinda Corp. sold most of its GM stock.[71]

In 2006, Ford Motor Co. made Ghosn a formal offer to lead the company.[72] Ghosn refused, reportedly saying the only way he would come to the struggling company was if he was named both the CEO and chairman of the board. Bill Ford Jr. refused to give up his chairmanship.[73]

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Carlos Ghosn at Nissan's Honmoku Wharf, a logistics hub about 10 km southeast of Nissan's global headquarters in Yokohama, July 2011

In 2007, Ghosn led the Renault–Nissan Alliance into the mass-market zero-emission electric car market in a major way, and committed €4 billion (more than $5 billion) to the effort.[74][75][76][77] In 2008, he confirmed that Nissan–Renault would bring an "entire lineup" of zero-emission electric cars to the worldwide market by 2012.[78][79] In 2009, he told the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business, "If you're going to let developing countries have as many cars as they want—and they're going to have as many cars as they want one way or another—there is absolutely no alternative but to go for zero emissions. And the only zero-emissions vehicle available today is electric ... So we decided to go for it."[80] The Nissan Leaf, an electric car billed as "the world's first affordable zero-emission car",[81][82] debuted in December 2010.[75] By 2017, the Renault–Nissan Alliance was the world leader in electric vehicles, selling more than twice as many electric cars as Tesla, and the Nissan Leaf was the world's best-selling electric vehicle by a wide margin.[83]

Ghosn was a visible leader in recovery efforts after the Japanese earthquake and tsunami on 11 March 2011, one of the worst natural disasters in modern history.[84] On 29 March 2011, he made the first of several visits to the hard-hit Iwaki engine plant in Fukushima prefecture, 50 km (31 miles) from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant,[85][86][87] and at his direction Nissan restored full operations at the Iwaki factory well ahead of expectations.[88][89][90] He appeared on television in Japan to encourage optimism.[87][91][92][93] In May 2011, Ghosn remained committed to building at least 1 million of Nissan's cars and trucks in Japan annually.[94] In 2011 Ghosn was under scrutiny by the French government for mishandling a spying scandal related to Renault.[95][96]

In June 2012, Ghosn was named deputy chairman of the board of directors of Russian automobile manufacturer AvtoVAZ.[97] In June 2013, he was appointed chairman of the Russian company, a position he retained through June 2016.[98] Renault had begun a strategic partnership with AvtoVAZ in 2008 by acquiring a 25% stake in the company;[99] this led to increasingly deeper partnerships between Renault–Nissan and AvtoVAZ,[100] ending in Renault–Nissan Alliance control of the Russian automaker in 2014.[101]

In February 2017, Ghosn announced he would step down as CEO of Nissan on 1 April 2017, while remaining chairman of the company.[102][103] Hiroto Saikawa succeeded Ghosn at Nissan.[102] In November 2018, Renault owned 43.4% of Nissan, while Nissan owned non-voting shares equal to 15% of Renault's equity.[104][105]

Mitsubishi

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Carlos Ghosn at the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos (2008)

In October 2016, Nissan completed the acquisition of a controlling 34% stake in Mitsubishi Motors. Ghosn became, in addition to his Renault–Nissan posts, chairman of Mitsubishi, with an aim to rehabilitate the automaker after a months-long scandal involving fuel-economy misrepresentation and consequent falling revenues. The Nissan–Mitsubishi partnership includes partnership in developing electric automobiles for Mitsubishi, and the Renault–Nissan–Mitsubishi Alliance creates the world's fourth-largest auto group, after Toyota, Volkswagen AG, and General Motors Co.[106][107][108]

Mitsubishi Motors board removed Ghosn from his role as chairman on 26 November 2018, following his arrest and ousting from Nissan for alleged financial misconduct.[109]

Advisorships

Ghosn served on the International Advisory Board of Brazilian bank Banco Itaú (a major party in the privatisation of Renault) until 2015.[110][111] He is also a member of the advisory board of Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management in Beijing.[112] He has received an honorary doctorate from American University of Beirut;[113] and he is a member of the Strategic Council, Saint Joseph University of Beirut.[114] In 2014 and 2015, he was elected president of the European Automobile Manufacturers Association.[115][116][117] He serves as governor of the World Economic Forum.[118]

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Legal troubles

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Initial arrest and detention

On 19 November 2018, Carlos Ghosn was arrested by Tokyo prosecutors shortly after landing in Japan on a private jet.[119] Nissan alleged that Ghosn had underreported nearly $80 million in compensation and misused company assets, launching an internal investigation against him.[120] Ghosn, however, denied wrongdoing, stating that all payments were legal and known to the company’s internal auditors and board.[121]

Ghosn was detained at the Tokyo Detention House for 108 days, often in solitary confinement, and subjected to lengthy daily interrogations without a lawyer present. He described the conditions as psychological coercion and labeled Japan’s pre-trial system “hostage justice.”[122] His wife Carole Ghosn raised concerns with international human rights organizations about the nature of his treatment and the denial of communication.[123]

Bail and allegations of a corporate coup

After multiple bail denials, Ghosn was released in March 2019 on a ¥1 billion (~$9 million) bail with strict conditions, including constant surveillance and a ban on communicating with his wife.[124] He criticized these measures as punitive and psychologically exhausting. In a video released shortly after a rearrest, Ghosn stated he was the victim of a plot by Nissan insiders who feared his plans to deepen the Renault-Nissan alliance.[125]

He named specific Nissan executives and alleged that the Japanese legal system was being used as a weapon in a corporate coup.[126] Ghosn argued that the pattern of re-arrests was designed to keep him imprisoned indefinitely and break his will to fight the charges.[122]

Escape and international fallout

On 30 December 2019, Ghosn fled Japan in violation of his bail. He was transported hidden in a large road case aboard a private jet which flew from Osaka to Istanbul, then to Beirut.[127] He described the move as an “escape from injustice,” stating that he faced a judicial system where “guilt was presumed.”[128]

Japanese authorities condemned the escape, forfeited Ghosn’s $14 million bail, and issued international arrest warrants. Interpol issued a Red Notice, but Lebanon – where Ghosn holds citizenship – declined to extradite him.[129] In 2021, a Japanese court convicted two Americans who helped facilitate the escape and sentenced them to prison.[130] Lebanese authorities imposed a travel ban on Ghosn, and French authorities later issued their own international warrant regarding alleged misuse of Renault funds.[131]

Lawsuits, French charges, and ongoing legacy

Following his arrival in Lebanon, Ghosn filed a $1 billion lawsuit against Nissan and others involved in his arrest, citing defamation, fabrication of evidence, and personal damages.[132] He has continued to speak out in interviews and documentaries, arguing that he was ousted in a politically motivated corporate coup.

Meanwhile, legal action has continued outside Japan. In 2022, French prosecutors issued an international arrest warrant related to €15 million in alleged personal use of company funds via an Omani dealership.[133] Ghosn denied wrongdoing and pledged to cooperate with legal authorities willing to offer a fair trial.

In 2022, Greg Kelly, the former Nissan executive arrested alongside Ghosn, was acquitted on most charges in Japan. The Tokyo court ruled there was insufficient evidence to prove criminal intent in earlier years. He received a suspended sentence on one minor count, while Nissan was fined ¥200 million.[134] Ghosn interpreted this as validation that the case had been politically motivated and overstated.

As of 2025, Carlos Ghosn remains in Beirut under a travel ban, shielded from extradition by Lebanese law. He has stated that he will continue fighting to restore his reputation and expose what he describes as a corporate coup enabled by a flawed justice system.[122]

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Personal life

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Carlos Ghosn at 2014 Paris Motor Show

Ghosn's first marriage was to Rita Kordahi, who came originally from Rayfoun, Lebanon, and whom he met in France in 1984. Together they had four children: Caroline, Nadine, Maya and Anthony.[135] They divorced in 2012.[104] In May 2016, Ghosn married Lebanese-American Carole Nahas,[136] and a few months later in October, threw a large party at the Grand Trianon of the Palace of Versailles, in the outskirts of Paris, to celebrate both the wedding and Carole's 50th birthday.[137][138] He is reported by several Japanese media to have six private residences: in Tokyo, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Amsterdam, Beirut, and New York.[139][140]

Ghosn, whom Forbes magazine called "the hardest-working man in the brutally competitive global car business",[25] as of 2006 was splitting his time between Paris and Tokyo and logging roughly 150,000 nautical miles (280,000 km; 170,000 mi) in airplanes per year.[25] Japanese media called him "Seven-Eleven" ("work very hard from early in the morning till late at night").[54] He holds citizenship to Lebanon, Brazil and France.[135] He has been noted for his direct, results-and-execution-oriented style in business strategy meetings,[25] and for his interest in resolving problems from within a company by listening to workers and by cross-functional and cross-cultural team groupings.[51]

Ghosn is multilingual, speaking four languages fluently – Arabic, English, French, and Portuguese – and he has also studied Japanese.[28][141] He is a partner in Ixsir, a winery in the northern coastal town of Batroun, Lebanon.[142] In 2012, he was named to the Honorary Board of the American Foundation of Saint George Hospital in Beirut.[143][144] In 2020, he became a coach to business leaders at USEK.[145]

Ghosn was hailed as a potential presidential candidate in Lebanon in 2007.[146][147] In a June 2011 survey by life-insurance company Axa, Ghosn was ranked No. 7 in a random poll asking Japanese people, "Which celebrity do you want to run Japan?" (Barack Obama was No. 9, and Prime Minister Naoto Kan was No. 19.)[148][149][150] He has so far declined such overtures, saying he has "no political ambitions".[146]

Ghosn's lawyers have stated he has chronic kidney disease which they claim was worsened by his lack of access to proper treatment while imprisoned.[151]

In the media

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Carlos Ghosn interviewed by LinkedIn Influencer (2014)

Beginning in November 2001, Ghosn's life story was turned into a superhero comic book series in Japan, titled The True Story of Carlos Ghosn, in the manga comic book Big Comic Superior.[152] The series was published as a book in 2002.[54][153] His face has been reproduced both in Lebanese postage stamps and in bento boxes in Japanese restaurants.[154]

Ghosn is the subject of a number of books in English, Japanese, and French. In English, he wrote a bestselling business book called Shift: Inside Nissan's Historic Revival.[155] He was the subject of another business book called Turnaround: How Carlos Ghosn Rescued Nissan by David Magee.[156] He also provided strategic business commentary and on-the-job lessons to aspiring managers in a book called The Ghosn Factor: 24 Inspiring Lessons From Carlos Ghosn, the Most Successful Transnational CEO by Miguel Rivas-Micoud.[157]

Netflix in 2022 released a documentary titled Fugitive: The Curious Case of Carlos Ghosn, which chronicles Ghosn's rise, as well as the internal rivalries and tensions he sparked within Nissan-Renault, and his dramatic arrest.[citation needed] Apple TV+ released a documentary titled Wanted: The Escape of Carlos Ghosn, in 2023.[citation needed]

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Awards and recognition

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As a result of his achievements, Ghosn has had numerous awards and honors bestowed upon him. Some of these include:

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Bibliography

Books

  • Ghosn, Carlos (2001). Renaissance. Translated by Nakagawa, Haruko. Tokyo: Diamond.
  • ——————; Riès, Philippe (2003). Citoyen du monde (in French). Grasset. ISBN 978-2-246-63091-3.
  • —————— (2007). SHIFT: Inside Nissan's Historic Revival. Crown Publishing Group. ISBN 9780307423818.
  • ——————; Riès, Philippe (2020). Le temps de la vérité (in French). Bernard Grasset. ISBN 978-2-246-82417-6.
  • ——————; Riès, Philippe (2021). Broken Alliances: Inside the Rise and Fall of a Global Automotive Empire. Tanooki Press. ISBN 978-1-954306-00-4.
  • ——————; Ghosn, Carole (3 March 2021). Ensemble, toujours (in French). Humensis. ISBN 979-10-329-1652-0.

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References

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