{"id":132682,"date":"2019-01-11T17:42:33","date_gmt":"2019-01-11T22:42:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=132682"},"modified":"2019-01-11T19:28:51","modified_gmt":"2019-01-12T00:28:51","slug":"nissan-shake-up-claims-first-victim-former-us-ceo-munoz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2019\/01\/nissan-shake-up-claims-first-victim-former-us-ceo-munoz\/","title":{"rendered":"Nissan Shake-Up Claims First Victim: Former US CEO Mu\u00f1oz"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Jose Mu\u00f1oz, Nissan's chief performance officer, parted ways with the automaker today.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jos\u00e9 Mu\u00f1oz, a widely respected Nissan executive and a prot\u00e9g\u00e9 of ousted Chairman Carlos Ghosn, is leaving the automaker just days after he reportedly took a leave of absence to deal with \u201cspecial tasks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mu\u00f1oz, who had gone to Japan this week, was said to have resigned, according to Nissan, but several observers questioned whether his departure marks the beginning of a purge of senior managers linked to Ghosn. The 64-year-old executive was arrested on Nov. 19,\u00a0and accused of a number of financial misdeeds, prosecutors on Friday indicting him for the second time.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Breaking News!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cJos\u00e9 Mu\u00f1oz has elected to resign from Nissan Motor Company, effective immediately,\u201d Nissan said in a statement e-mailed to TheDetroitBureau.com.<\/p>\n

But not everyone is convinced of that, Joe Phillippi, a veteran auto analyst and head of AutoTrends Consulting, said, \u201conce you get new management in, invariably things begin to shake up.\u201d He also noted that Nissan performed worse than expected in the U.S. market last year, which could provide \u201can opportunity to clean house.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Carlos Ghosn has been indicted again. <\/em>Click Here<\/a><\/span>\u00a0for the story.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa, who has been unhappy with the balance of power between Nissan and Renault, is rumored to have sacked Munoz.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A former Nissan executive who remains close to the automaker was even more blunt, suggesting that the departure of the 53-year-old Mu\u00f1oz could mark the start of what he termed \u201ca bloodbath.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mu\u00f1oz has been serving as Chief Performance Officer since November 2016, but he built his reputation as the president of Nissan Mexicana and, subsequently, head of overall North American operations where he helped drive the carmaker to record sales levels and market share.<\/p>\n

He was considered a prot\u00e9g\u00e9 of Carlos Ghosn but was tasked with assisting Nissan in its investigation of the chairman it ousted after his November arrest. The trade publication Automotive News quoted sources\u00a0 indicating there were concerns that the Spanish-born Mu\u00f1oz wasn\u2019t being cooperative enough with the investigation which, Nissan had said was initiated by a \u201cwhistleblower.”<\/p>\n

The trade publication also quoted from a letter Mu\u00f1oz reportedly sent to colleagues in which he said that, \u201cUnfortunately, Nissan is currently involved in matters that have and will continue to divert its focus. As I have repeatedly and recently made clear to the company, I look forward to continuing to assist Nissan in its investigations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mu\u00f1oz indicated to those colleagues that he had decided it was time to leave and take \u201csome period of serious contemplation.\u201d But sources told TheDetroitBureau.com that Mu\u00f1oz likely jumped knowing that he was about to be pushed out of the company.<\/p>\n

(<\/em>Click Here<\/a><\/span>\u00a0for our coverage of Ghosn\u2019s first court appearance.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

He was seen by some as a potential successor to Hiroto Saikawa, Nissan\u2019s global CEO. Published reports during the last seven weeks have suggested that Ghosn had been heading to Japan to fire the CEO when he was arrested. Whether that is true or not, Saikawa has been seen as trying to consolidate his power since the crisis began.<\/p>\n

He has also been pushing to reduce the influence of Renault. Nissan\u2019s French alliance partner holds a 43.4% stake in the Japanese company and that has led to growing friction since it can unilaterally install members of Nissan\u2019s board, as well as top management like Mu\u00f1oz.<\/p>\n

Following Ghosn\u2019s arrest, Saikawa harshly declared that his former boss had cultivated \u201ctoo much power,\u201d and made it clear that he wanted to see changes in the lopsided relationship with Renault \u2013 which had saved Nissan from likely bankruptcy in 1999 with a $6 billion bailout led by Ghosn.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think anyone in senior management is on the (endangered) list,\u201d said the former Nissan executive, who worked in Japan, adding, \u201cWell, at least anyone who isn\u2019t Japanese.\u201d<\/p>\n

The number of foreigners working at Nissan headquarters in Japan has declined in recent years but there are still a number of them in senior positions globally, including Denis LeVot, the Frenchman who is now serving as North American CEO.<\/p>\n

(To see more about the release of Nissan exec Kelly released,\u00a0<\/em>Click Here<\/a><\/span>.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The coming weeks will indicate whether the departure of Mu\u00f1oz is a unique situation or the start of a broader shake-up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

os\u00e9 Mu\u00f1oz, a widely respected Nissan executive and a prot\u00e9g\u00e9 of ousted Chairman Carlos Ghosn, is leaving the automaker just days after he reportedly took a leave of absence to deal with \u201cspecial tasks.\u201d The question was his departure voluntary or forced? Find out more at TheDetroitBureau.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74896,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8,5,11],"tags":[],"make":[87,90,99],"post-state":[],"category_old":[286,150,151,123,287,289,299,138,132,194,284,189,125,225,290,288],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132682"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132682"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=132682"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=132682"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=132682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}