TOKYO — Former Mitsubishi Motors Chief Executive Osamu Masuko, who engineered the Japanese automaker's alliance with Nissan, has died. He was 71.
Masuko was named a special adviser to the company when he resigned for health reasons as of Aug. 7. Mitsubishi said he died of heart failure on Aug. 27.
Nissan's board of directors is reportedly pressured by a team of current and former executives behind the scenes to promote Ashwani Gupta, the company's COO, to co-CEO alongside Makoto Uchida.
(Reuters) - Nissan's chief operating officer Ashwani Gupta, pictured above right, helped engineer the troubled automaker's latest turnaround plan. Now his allies are pressing the board to promote him to co-CEO to drive the new strategy, said four people with direct knowledge.
Thus far, Nissan's 12-member board has no plan to change the roles of Chief Executive Makoto Uchida or his No. 2 Gupta, the sources told Reuters. But the behind-the-scenes campaign, involving at least half a dozen current and former executives, points to continued tensions at the top of the Japanese automaker, which has had four CEOs in four years.
YOKOHAMA — Nissan's new chief executive said on Tuesday he would accept being fired if he fails to turn around Japan's second biggest automaker which is grappling with plunging sales in the aftermath of the scandal surrounding ex-chairman Carlos Ghosn.
Makoto Uchida, who took over the top job in December, put his job on the line at the automaker's shareholders' meeting, where he faced demands ranging from cutting executive pay to offering a bounty to bring Ghosn back to Japan after he fled to Lebanon.