Carlos Ghosn, KBE (/ɡoʊn/;[1] French: [kaʁlɔs ɡon], born March 9, 1954) is a Brazilian-born French businessman of Lebanese ancestry.[2] Ghosn has served as the CEO of Michelin North America, chairman and CEO of Renault, chairman of AvtoVAZ, chairman and CEO of Nissan, and chairman of Mitsubishi Motors.[3][4][5] Ghosn was also chairman and CEO of the Renault–Nissan–Mitsubishi Alliance, a strategic partnership among those automotive manufacturers through a complex cross-shareholding agreement. The venture has held an approximately 10% market share since 2010, and as of 2017 was reckoned to be the largest automobile group worldwide.[6][7][8][9][10]
In 1996, Renault's CEO Louis Schweitzer hired Ghosn as his deputy and charged him with the task of turning the company around from near bankruptcy. Ghosn elaborated a plan to cut costs for the period 1998–2000, reducing the workforce, revising production processes, standardising vehicle parts and pushing the launch of new models. The company also undertook organisational changes, introducing a lean production system with delegate responsibilities inspired by Japanese systems (the "Renault Production Way"), reforming work methods and centralising research and development at its Technocentre to reduce vehicle conception costs while accelerating such conception.[11] Ghosn became known as "Le Cost Killer".[12] In the early 2000s, for orchestrating one of the auto industry's most aggressive downsizing campaigns and spearheading the turnaround of Nissan from its near bankruptcy in 1999, he earned the nickname "Mr. Fix It".[13]
Following the Nissan financial turnaround, in 2002 Fortune awarded him Asia Businessman of the Year.[14][15] In 2003 Fortune identified him as one of the 10 most powerful people in business outside the U.S.,[16] and its Asian edition voted him Man of the Year.[17] Surveys jointly published by the Financial Times and PricewaterhouseCoopers named him the fourth most respected business leader in 2003,[18] and the third most respected business leader in 2004 and in 2005.[19][20][21] He quickly achieved celebrity status in Japan and in the business world,[22][23] and his life has been chronicled in Japanese comics.[24]
Ghosn stepped down as CEO of Nissan on 1 April 2017, while remaining chairman of the company.[25] He was arrested at Haneda Airport on 19 November 2018, on allegations of under-reporting his earnings and misuse of company assets.[26][27] On 22 November 2018, Nissan's board made a unanimous decision to dismiss Ghosn as Nissan's chairman.[28][29] It was followed by Mitsubishi Motors' board on 26 November 2018.[30][31] Renault and the French government continued to support him, presuming him innocent until proven guilty.[32] However, Ghosn retired as chairman and CEO of Renault on 24 January 2019.[33] While out on bail, Ghosn was re-arrested in Tokyo on 4 April 2019 over new charges of misappropriations of Nissan funds. On 8 April 2019 Nissan shareholders voted to oust Ghosn from the company's board.[34] He was released on bail on 25 April. Ghosn later according to reports fled Japan to go to Lebanon on 30 December thus breaking his bail conditions.
Early life and education
Ghosn's grandfather was Bichara Ghosn, a Maronite Christian who emigrated from French Mandate Lebanon to Brazil at the age of 13, eventually settling in remote Guaporé, Rondônia, near the border between Brazil and Bolivia.[35] 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.[36] His son Jorge Ghosn married Rose Jazzar, a Nigerian-born woman whose family also came from Lebanon,[37] and they settled in Porto Velho, the state capital of Rondônia, where they had four children.[38]
Carlos Ghosn was born on March 9, 1954, in Porto Velho.[38][39][40] When he was about two years old he became sick after drinking unsanitary water, and his mother moved with him to Rio de Janeiro.[38] 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.[38]
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.[41] He graduated as an engineer from the École Polytechnique in 1974 and the École des Mines de Paris in 1978.[39][42][43]
Career
Michelin
After graduation in 1978, Ghosn spent 18 years at Michelin, Europe's largest tire maker, initially training and working in several plants in France and Germany.[39][44] In 1981, he became plant manager in Le Puy-en-Velay, France.[39][45] In 1984 he was named head of research and development for the company's industrial tire division.[39][46]
In 1985, when Ghosn was 30 years old, he was appointed chief operating officer (COO) of Michelin's South American operations.[39][47] 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.[47][48] Ghosn formed cross-functional management teams to determine best practices among the French, Brazilian, and other nationalities working in the South American division.[49] The multicultural experience in Brazil formed the basis of his cross-cultural management style and emphasis on diversity as a core business asset.[49][50] "You learn from diversity ... but you're comforted by commonality", Ghosn has said.[51] The division returned to profitability in two years.[49][52][53]
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.[54] He was promoted to CEO of Michelin North America in 1990.[49][54] He presided over the restructuring of the company after its acquisition of the Uniroyal Goodrich Tire Company.[39][55]
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.[39][56] Ghosn's radical restructuring of Renault successfully contributed to profitability of the company over 1997.[12][57] 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
In March 1999, Renault and Nissan formed the Renault–Nissan Alliance, and in May 1999 Renault purchased a 36.8% stake in Nissan.[58] 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.[39] When he joined the company, Nissan had a consolidated interest-bearing net automotive debt of more than $20 billion (more than 2 trillion yen),[48][59] and only three of its 46 models sold in Japan were generating a profit.[60] Reversing the company's sinking fortunes was considered nearly impossible.[61][62][63][64]
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.[65][66][67] Ghosn promised to resign if these goals were not met.[68] 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.[65][69][70]
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.[71] 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.[72][73][74] When the Nissan Revival Plan was announced, the proposed dismantling of keiretsu earned Ghosn the nickname "keiretsu killer",[75] 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.[76][77] 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.[78][79]
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,[80] from a consolidated net loss of $6.46 billion in the previous year.[81] 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.[82] The goals of the Nissan Revival Plan were all reached before March 31, 2002.[83]
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.[84][85] These goals were all reached:[86] In the spring of 2003, Nissan announced that its net automotive debt was eliminated in fiscal year 2002.[87][88] Nissan's operating profit margin climbed to 11.1% in fiscal year 2003;[89] it had been 1.4% in fiscal year 1999.[90] In October 2005, Nissan announced that its annual sales from September 30, 2004, to September 30, 2005, were more than 3.67 million, up from the 2.6 million vehicles sold in the fiscal year ended March 2002
In May 2005, Ghosn was named president and chief executive officer of Renault.[39] When he assumed the CEO roles at both Renault and Nissan, Ghosn became the world's first person to run two companies on the Fortune Global 500 simultaneously.[93]
In 2005, billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian acquired a 9.9% stake in General Motors (GM) and seated one of his representatives on the company's board, then urged GM to investigate a merger with Renault and Nissan with Ghosn 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.[94]
In 2006, Ford Motor Co. made Ghosn a formal offer to lead the company, according to the book American Icon: Alan Mulally and the Fight to Save Ford Motor Company by Bryce Hoffman.[95] 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
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.[97][98][99][100] In 2008, he confirmed that Nissan–Renault would bring an "entire lineup" of zero-emission electric cars to the worldwide market by 2012.[101][102] 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 no absolutely alternative but to go for zero emissions. And the only zero-emissions vehicle available today is electric ... So we decided to go for it."[103] The Nissan Leaf, an electric car billed as "the world's first affordable zero-emission car",[104][105] debuted in December 2010.[98][106] As of 2017, the Renault–Nissan Alliance is the world's electric vehicle leader, selling more than double the number of electric cars as Tesla, and the Nissan Leaf is the world's best-selling electric vehicle by a wide margin.[107]
Ghosn was a visible leader in recovery efforts after the Japanese earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011, one of the worst natural disasters in modern history.[108] On March 29, 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,[109][110][111] and at his direction Nissan restored full operations at the Iwaki factory well ahead of expectations.[112][113][114] He appeared on television in Japan to encourage optimism.[111][115][116][117] In May 2011, Ghosn remained committed to building at least 1 million of Nissan's cars and trucks in Japan annually.[118]
In June 2012, Ghosn was named deputy chairman of the board of directors of Russian automobile manufacturer AvtoVAZ.[119] In June 2013, he was appointed chairman of the Russian company, a position he retained through June 2016.[120][121][122][123][124] Renault had begun a strategic partnership with AvtoVAZ in 2008 by acquiring a 25% stake in the company;[125] this led to increasingly deeper partnerships between Renault–Nissan and AvtoVAZ,[126] ending in Renault–Nissan Alliance control of the Russian automaker in 2014.[127]
In February 2017, Ghosn announced he would step down as CEO of Nissan on April 1, 2017, while remaining chairman of the company.[25][128] Hiroto Saikawa, succeeded Ghosn at Nissan.[25] In November 2018, Renault owned 43.4% of Nissan, while Nissan owned non-voting shares equal to 15% of Renault's equity.[129][130]
Mitsubishi
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.[131][132][133]
Mitsubishi Motors board removed Ghosn from his role as chairman on November 26, 2018, following his arrest and ousting from Nissan for alleged financial misconduct.[30]
Advisorships
Ghosn served on the International Advisory Board of Brazilian bank Banco Itaú (a major party in the privatisation of Renault) until 2015.[134][135] He is also a member of the Advisory Board of Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management in Beijing.[136] He has received an honorary doctorate from American University of Beirut;[137] and he is a member of the Strategic Council, Saint Joseph University of Beirut.[138] In 2014 and 2015, he was elected president of the European Automobile Manufacturers Association.[139][140][141] He serves as governor of the World Economic Forum.[142]
Arrest in Tokyo and subsequent Nissan investigation
Initial arrest
On 19 November 2018, Tokyo District Prosecutors arrested Ghosn at 4:30 pm upon his re-entry into Japan aboard a private jet that had come from Lebanon,[143] for questioning over allegations of false accounting.[144][145][146][147] Ghosn's top aide Greg Kelly, a Nissan director and former head of human resources, was also arrested upon his arrival from the U.S. that day.[129]
On the same day, Nissan chief executive Hiroto Saikawa announced at a press conference that Ghosn had been dismissed from Nissan's board and would be stripped of executive rights at a meeting to be held on 22 November. Saikawa stressed that the dismissal was the result of an internal inquiry by Nissan.[148][145] Nissan Chief Executive Officer Hiroto Saikawa publicly alleged that Ghosn and Kelly under-reported their compensation (a violation of securities law) and used company assets for personal use.[149] While the allegations remained unproven in court, with due legal process pending, at the same news conference, Saikawa "expressed disappointment, indignation, and despair at Ghosn's conduct, which included using company funds for personal investments and misusing corporate assets" and also said, "This is an act that cannot be tolerated by the company ... It is sufficient grounds for his dismissal."[149]
Although the company did not provide details, reports in the Japanese media stated that Nissan was paying all or some of the costs at some amount of US$18 million for residences used by Ghosn in Rio de Janeiro, Beirut, Paris and Amsterdam, and that Ghosn charged family vacation expenses to the company.[147] The purchases of some of these residences and the payment of expenses were handled by a shell company named Zi-A Capital BV based in the Netherlands, which Kelly had instructed Nissan's board to set up to make venture investments at the end of 2010 (around the same time as Ghosn's divorce from his first wife and beginning of a relationship with his second wife).[129] Nissan funds were used to purchase Ghosn's Paris apartment in 2005, and Zi-A funds were used to purchase his $5 million beachfront Rio apartment in 2012 and his Beirut mansion, which, with renovations, cost over $15 million.[129] Nissan compliance auditors began trying to track Zi-A activity in 2014 but were stymied at first by the chain of shell companies used in Zi-A investments.[129]
In addition, to avoid reporting the full amount of his compensation in Nissan financials, as required by Japanese law beginning in 2010, Ghosn had Kelly structure complicated deferred payment plans which went unreported under an aggressive interpretation of the disclosure rules which Nissan's outside auditors had not signed off on, and which totaled around $80 million at the time of his arrest eight years later.[129] According to Nikkei reports, Ghosn told investigators that he instructed Kelly to handle the compensation reporting in a legal manner, and Kelly told investigators that he acted on advice from outside law firms and the Financial Services Agency in handling the reporting.[150][151] Leaks to the media said that Ghosn had planned to call a vote to fire Nissan CEO Saikawa and reinstate Kelly (who had semi-retired to the U.S. in 2015) to active service at the scheduled board meeting.[129]
Ghosn was detained at the Tokyo Detention House, under Japanese rules that allow suspects to be detained for up to 23 days without criminal charges being filed.[152] Ghosn and Kelly were reportedly arrested on information provided by an unidentified non-Japanese executive in Nissan's legal department, in the second deal ever struck under Japan's recently introduced plea bargaining system.[147] Charges were filed against Ghosn and Kelly on the underreporting of deferred compensation on 10 December, along with allegations of additional charges that restarted a 10-day holding period without bail.[129] Nissan also took control of the Rio and Beirut properties and changed the locks, which has led Ghosn's family to sue for access.[129]
Continued detention and new charges
On 21 December, Ghosn was re-arrested on suspicion of shifting to Nissan personal losses of US$16.6 million related to a personal swap contract in October 2008 (during the global financial crisis).[153] The introduction of those charges prevented Ghosn's release on bail later the same day, because the new charges permitted an additional 10–20 days of incarceration prior to a bail hearing.[153] Subsequent reporting linked this charge to Ghosn's dealings with Sheikh Khaled al-Juffali, the vice chairman of one of Saudi Arabia's largest conglomerates and majority owner of a company which owns half of a regional joint venture called Nissan Gulf, with the other half held by a wholly owned Nissan subsidiary.[154] In return for a personal letter of credit from Juffali to Ghosn during the 2008 crisis, which served as bank-demanded collateral for Ghosn's swap contract, Nissan indirectly paid $14.7 million from an internal discretionary fund known as the "CEO Reserve" to a wholly owned Juffali company in four installments between 2009 and 2012, although the internal documentation did not specify the ultimate recipient.[154] According to Tokyo prosecutors, Kelly was not involved in this transaction and so was released on bail on 25 December.[154]
Ghosn made his first public appearance after his arrest at an arraignment on Tuesday, 8 January 2019, where he asserted his innocence, making a statement in response to the main allegations against him; however, his bid to be released from prison on these charges was rejected.[155][156]
Ghosn's imprisonment was set to end on 11 January. That day, Ghosn was indicted on two additional charges: aggravated breach of trust and understating his income, once again extending his imprisonment.[157][158][32] As a result, he could remain in jail for months more before a trial takes place.[156] Two days later, Nissan's investigation allegedly found that, in addition to the underreporting of salary already charged, Ghosn had paid himself an undisclosed $8 million in 2018 from a Netherlands-based joint venture owned by Nissan and Mitsubishi that was set up in 2017, without the knowledge of either company's directors because Ghosn had the sole authority to dispense cash from the venture.[159]
Ghosn again appealed the denial of bail from 8 January and offered to meet greater restrictions and higher guarantees of appearance in return for his release, including wearing an ankle bracelet and posting his Nissan stock as collateral.[160] Additionally, on 14 January Ghosn's wife Carole published a letter that she wrote to Human Rights Watch protesting against his treatment in detainment.[130][161] Nevertheless, on 21 January, the Tokyo district court denied his appeal.[162]
Le Figaro[163][164] and CNN have reported with the words hostage justice.[165] In its report on the release of Carlos Ghosn, Financial Times stated that the Japanese judicial system is a country risk.[163][166]
Further developments
On 11 January,[167] José Muñoz, Nissan's chief performance officer and head of its China operations, resigned from the company, effective immediately.[168] Muñoz, considered to be a close ally to Ghosn and a possible successor as CEO of Renault and Nissan, had been a "person of interest" in Nissan's internal investigation, with which he was reported to be uncooperative.[168] One of Nissan's three independent directors opined that Nissan may simply eliminate the position of chairman and not replace Ghosn, a route previously taken by other scandal-plagued Japanese companies.[169] The Reuters Japan news service reported that Nissan may file suit against Ghosn personally.[161][170]
At first the French government and Renault had been reported to be standing behind Ghosn during his imprisonment, on the presumption that Ghosn is innocent until proven guilty.[32] However, France's financial minister Bruno Le Maire stated on 16 January that Renault may seek a new CEO to replace Ghosn due to his continued incarceration.[161][130] Renault also released a statement that day stating that the company is "actively working to find the best solution for the future governance of the group, with a view to preserving the company's interests and strengthening the Renault–Nissan Alliance".[161] As reported by The New York Times, Renault's appointment of a successor might not be due to Renault changing its view about his innocence but rather an acknowledgement of his inability to perform his duties from a Japanese prison.[130] Because Renault relies on significant financial contributions from Nissan under the Renault–Nissan Alliance, media reports say that Renault is worried that Nissan may be using the power vacuum at Renault to reshape the alliance's balance of power.[130][171] As a result, Ghosn resigned as chairman and CEO of Renault on 24 January 2019.[33]
On 30 January, Ghosn said the charges were "plot and treason" by executives at Nissan who opposed the relationship with Renault and a future plan that was in the works to integrate Nissan, Mitsubishi and Renault.[172] In mid-February, Ghosn's lawyer Motonari Otsuru stepped down and was replaced by Jun'ichirō Hironaka [ja], who has a record of persistence in obtaining acquittals in a number of high-profile cases.[173]
In early March, Ghosn was granted a request for bail in a Tokyo court. The court set his bail at 1 billion yen, (about US$9 million). This was his third bail request, and the first by his new legal team under Hironaka. Hironaka has stated that it would be "impossible" for him to front the cash to be released on bail the same day due to issues with the bank used to pay the bail and an appeal by the prosecutor's office.[174][175] The bail approval was subject to stringent controls, such as not traveling abroad. He was released on March 6, 2019. Under strict bail conditions, Ghosn remained at a house, under 24-hour camera surveillance, with no internet access.[176][177]
On April 3, Ghosn tweeted that he was "ready to tell the truth" and that he would hold a conference on April 11.[178] He was re-arrested for the fourth time early on April 4 over new suspicions of financial misconduct concerning alleged dealings via Oman.[179] Ghosn released a statement claiming the arrest was "outrageous and arbitrary".[180] Until that point in time he had been held for 108 days since he was first arrested in November 2018.
On 8 April 2019, during an extraordinary shareholders meeting, Nissan shareholders voted to remove Carlos Ghosn from the company board.[181] Shareholders also voted to remove Ghosn's former right-hand man Greg Kelly, and to appoint Renault chairman Jean-Dominique Senard as a director.[34]
On 9 April, Ghosn posted a YouTube video, where he publicly stated that he was "innocent of all the accusations that came around these charges that are all biased, taken out of context, twisted in a way to paint a personage of greed, and a personage of dictatorship". He also claimed that the payments to Juffali were meant to help Nissan fix a dispute with a local distributor, and to open a bank contract to convert his salary from yen to US dollars, in order to avoid currency swings.[182]
The Japanese court rejected an appeal filed by Ghosn's lawyers, and approved an initial 10 days detention for Ghosn, until April 22.[183] He was released in late April, but confined to strict house arrest, including having no contact with his wife for four months.[184]
In June 2019 French finance minister Bruno Le Maire said on TV that Carlos Ghosn could face legal in action in France after finding out about 11 million euros of dubious expenses.[185] Prosecutors in the district of Nanterre west of Paris stated that anti-fraud police had searched his residence in the town of L'Étang-la-Ville for evidence.[186] In July Renault's headquarters in Boulogne-Billancourt were searched by 20 police personnel in relation to this case.[187]
July 2019 saw Carlos Ghosn take action against French mass-media for libel.[citation needed]
In August Carole Ghosn appealed to President Emmanuel Macron of France to intercede on behalf of her husband with Japanese leader Shinzo Abe at the 45th G7 summit held from August 24–26[188][189] at the French town of Biarritz.[184]
Escape from Japan
On 30 December 2019, numerous media outlets reported that Ghosn fled Japan and arrived in Beirut, Lebanon.[190][191] Ghosn later confirmed these reports through a statement released by his press representative in New York.[192] In his statement, Ghosn claimed that he would "no longer be held hostage by a rigged Japanese justice system where guilt is presumed, discrimination is rampant and basic human rights are denied," adding that he did not flee justice, but "escaped injustice and political persecution."[192] A member of Ghosn's defense team in Japan said that he was "surprised and baffled" by Ghosn's departure.[193]
Following Ghosn's arrival in Lebanon, a Tokyo court granted a request by Japanese prosecutors to revoke his bail.[193] While Japan and Lebanon are both members of Interpol and have had diplomatic relations since 1954,[194] there is no extradition agreement between the two countries.[190]
Personal life
By his first marriage to Rita Kordahi in 1984, Ghosn is the father of four grown children: Caroline, Nadine, Maya and Anthony.[195] They divorced in 2012.[129] In May 2016, Ghosn married Carole Nahas and, a few months later in October, threw a large-scale 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.[196] He is reported by several Japanese media to have six private residences: in Tokyo, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Amsterdam, Beirut and New York.[197][198]
Ghosn, whom Forbes magazine called "the hardest-working man in the brutally competitive global car business",[49] splits his time between Paris and Tokyo and as of 2006 logged roughly 150,000 miles in airplanes per year.[49] Japanese media have called him "Seven-Eleven" ("work very hard from early in the morning till late at night").[77] He holds Brazilian, French, and Lebanese citizenships.[195] He has been noted for his direct, no-nonsense, results-oriented and execution-oriented style in business strategy meetings,[49] but also for his interest in resolving problems from within a company by listening to workers and by cross-functional and cross-cultural team groupings.[74]
Ghosn is multilingual, speaking four languages fluently: French, Portuguese, English, and Arabic, and he has also studied Japanese.[52][199] He maintains ties to Lebanon, where he lived for 10 years and where he completed his primary and secondary education. He is a partner in Ixsir, a winery in the northern coastal town of Batroun, Lebanon.[200] In 2012 he was named to the Honorary Board of the American Foundation of Saint George Hospital in Beirut.[201][202]
Ghosn was hailed as a potential presidential candidate in Lebanon.[203][204] 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.)[205][206][207][208] He has so far declined such overtures, saying he has "no political ambitions".[203]
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.[209]
In the media
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.[210] The series was published as a book in 2002.[77][211]
Ghosn is the subject of a number of books in English, Japanese, and French. In English, he wrote a best-selling business book called Shift: Inside Nissan's Historic Revival.[212] He was the subject of another business book called Turnaround: How Carlos Ghosn Rescued Nissan by David Magee.[213] 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.[214]
Awards and recognition
As a result of his achievements, Ghosn has had numerous awards and honors bestowed upon him. Some of these include:
In 2001, he topped TIME Magazine's list of Global Influentials, beating Bill Gates and several other globally renowned businessmen.[215]
In 2001, he was named Father of the Year by a Japanese community group.[216]
In 2002, he was appointed a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour (Knight of the Legion of Honour) by the French government.[217]
In 2002 Fortune awarded him Asia Businessman of the Year.[14][15]
In 2003, he was named Man of the Year by Fortune magazine's Asian edition.[17]
In 2003 Fortune listed him as one of the 10 most powerful business leaders outside the U.S.[16]
In 2004, he became the first foreign business leader to receive the prestigious Blue Ribbon Medal from Emperor Akihito of Japan.[218]
In 2004, he was added to the Automotive Hall of Fame.[219]
In 2004, he was also added to the Japan Automotive Hall of Fame.[220]
In 2006, Ghosn was made an Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire.[221]
In 2010, CEO Quarterly magazine listed Ghosn as one of the "Most Respected CEOs"[222]
In 2011, CNBC listed Ghosn as Asia Business Leader of the Year.[223]
In 2012, Ghosn was awarded the Grand Cordon of the Order of Ouissam Alaouite, an honorific designation to civilians in recognition of services that benefit Morocco.[224]
In 2012, Ghosn received the Japan Society Award.[225]
In 2012, Ghosn became the first person in the auto industry, and the fourth overall, to win a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Strategic Management Society, a non-profit group that promotes ethical and strategic business stewardship.[226]
In 2012, Ghosn was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic, an honorific designation to civilians in recognition of services that benefit Spain.[227]
In 2013, he was appointed an International Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.[228]
In 2017, Lebanon's national post office, LibanPost, unveiled a collectable stamp honoring Carlos Ghosn
In 1996, Renault's CEO Louis Schweitzer hired Ghosn as his deputy and charged him with the task of turning the company around from near bankruptcy. Ghosn elaborated a plan to cut costs for the period 1998–2000, reducing the workforce, revising production processes, standardising vehicle parts and pushing the launch of new models. The company also undertook organisational changes, introducing a lean production system with delegate responsibilities inspired by Japanese systems (the "Renault Production Way"), reforming work methods and centralising research and development at its Technocentre to reduce vehicle conception costs while accelerating such conception.[11] Ghosn became known as "Le Cost Killer".[12] In the early 2000s, for orchestrating one of the auto industry's most aggressive downsizing campaigns and spearheading the turnaround of Nissan from its near bankruptcy in 1999, he earned the nickname "Mr. Fix It".[13]
Following the Nissan financial turnaround, in 2002 Fortune awarded him Asia Businessman of the Year.[14][15] In 2003 Fortune identified him as one of the 10 most powerful people in business outside the U.S.,[16] and its Asian edition voted him Man of the Year.[17] Surveys jointly published by the Financial Times and PricewaterhouseCoopers named him the fourth most respected business leader in 2003,[18] and the third most respected business leader in 2004 and in 2005.[19][20][21] He quickly achieved celebrity status in Japan and in the business world,[22][23] and his life has been chronicled in Japanese comics.[24]
Ghosn stepped down as CEO of Nissan on 1 April 2017, while remaining chairman of the company.[25] He was arrested at Haneda Airport on 19 November 2018, on allegations of under-reporting his earnings and misuse of company assets.[26][27] On 22 November 2018, Nissan's board made a unanimous decision to dismiss Ghosn as Nissan's chairman.[28][29] It was followed by Mitsubishi Motors' board on 26 November 2018.[30][31] Renault and the French government continued to support him, presuming him innocent until proven guilty.[32] However, Ghosn retired as chairman and CEO of Renault on 24 January 2019.[33] While out on bail, Ghosn was re-arrested in Tokyo on 4 April 2019 over new charges of misappropriations of Nissan funds. On 8 April 2019 Nissan shareholders voted to oust Ghosn from the company's board.[34] He was released on bail on 25 April. Ghosn later according to reports fled Japan to go to Lebanon on 30 December thus breaking his bail conditions.
Early life and education
Ghosn's grandfather was Bichara Ghosn, a Maronite Christian who emigrated from French Mandate Lebanon to Brazil at the age of 13, eventually settling in remote Guaporé, Rondônia, near the border between Brazil and Bolivia.[35] 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.[36] His son Jorge Ghosn married Rose Jazzar, a Nigerian-born woman whose family also came from Lebanon,[37] and they settled in Porto Velho, the state capital of Rondônia, where they had four children.[38]
Carlos Ghosn was born on March 9, 1954, in Porto Velho.[38][39][40] When he was about two years old he became sick after drinking unsanitary water, and his mother moved with him to Rio de Janeiro.[38] 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.[38]
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.[41] He graduated as an engineer from the École Polytechnique in 1974 and the École des Mines de Paris in 1978.[39][42][43]
Career
Michelin
After graduation in 1978, Ghosn spent 18 years at Michelin, Europe's largest tire maker, initially training and working in several plants in France and Germany.[39][44] In 1981, he became plant manager in Le Puy-en-Velay, France.[39][45] In 1984 he was named head of research and development for the company's industrial tire division.[39][46]
In 1985, when Ghosn was 30 years old, he was appointed chief operating officer (COO) of Michelin's South American operations.[39][47] 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.[47][48] Ghosn formed cross-functional management teams to determine best practices among the French, Brazilian, and other nationalities working in the South American division.[49] The multicultural experience in Brazil formed the basis of his cross-cultural management style and emphasis on diversity as a core business asset.[49][50] "You learn from diversity ... but you're comforted by commonality", Ghosn has said.[51] The division returned to profitability in two years.[49][52][53]
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.[54] He was promoted to CEO of Michelin North America in 1990.[49][54] He presided over the restructuring of the company after its acquisition of the Uniroyal Goodrich Tire Company.[39][55]
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.[39][56] Ghosn's radical restructuring of Renault successfully contributed to profitability of the company over 1997.[12][57] 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
In March 1999, Renault and Nissan formed the Renault–Nissan Alliance, and in May 1999 Renault purchased a 36.8% stake in Nissan.[58] 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.[39] When he joined the company, Nissan had a consolidated interest-bearing net automotive debt of more than $20 billion (more than 2 trillion yen),[48][59] and only three of its 46 models sold in Japan were generating a profit.[60] Reversing the company's sinking fortunes was considered nearly impossible.[61][62][63][64]
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.[65][66][67] Ghosn promised to resign if these goals were not met.[68] 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.[65][69][70]
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.[71] 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.[72][73][74] When the Nissan Revival Plan was announced, the proposed dismantling of keiretsu earned Ghosn the nickname "keiretsu killer",[75] 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.[76][77] 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.[78][79]
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,[80] from a consolidated net loss of $6.46 billion in the previous year.[81] 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.[82] The goals of the Nissan Revival Plan were all reached before March 31, 2002.[83]
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.[84][85] These goals were all reached:[86] In the spring of 2003, Nissan announced that its net automotive debt was eliminated in fiscal year 2002.[87][88] Nissan's operating profit margin climbed to 11.1% in fiscal year 2003;[89] it had been 1.4% in fiscal year 1999.[90] In October 2005, Nissan announced that its annual sales from September 30, 2004, to September 30, 2005, were more than 3.67 million, up from the 2.6 million vehicles sold in the fiscal year ended March 2002
In May 2005, Ghosn was named president and chief executive officer of Renault.[39] When he assumed the CEO roles at both Renault and Nissan, Ghosn became the world's first person to run two companies on the Fortune Global 500 simultaneously.[93]
In 2005, billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian acquired a 9.9% stake in General Motors (GM) and seated one of his representatives on the company's board, then urged GM to investigate a merger with Renault and Nissan with Ghosn 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.[94]
In 2006, Ford Motor Co. made Ghosn a formal offer to lead the company, according to the book American Icon: Alan Mulally and the Fight to Save Ford Motor Company by Bryce Hoffman.[95] 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
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.[97][98][99][100] In 2008, he confirmed that Nissan–Renault would bring an "entire lineup" of zero-emission electric cars to the worldwide market by 2012.[101][102] 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 no absolutely alternative but to go for zero emissions. And the only zero-emissions vehicle available today is electric ... So we decided to go for it."[103] The Nissan Leaf, an electric car billed as "the world's first affordable zero-emission car",[104][105] debuted in December 2010.[98][106] As of 2017, the Renault–Nissan Alliance is the world's electric vehicle leader, selling more than double the number of electric cars as Tesla, and the Nissan Leaf is the world's best-selling electric vehicle by a wide margin.[107]
Ghosn was a visible leader in recovery efforts after the Japanese earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011, one of the worst natural disasters in modern history.[108] On March 29, 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,[109][110][111] and at his direction Nissan restored full operations at the Iwaki factory well ahead of expectations.[112][113][114] He appeared on television in Japan to encourage optimism.[111][115][116][117] In May 2011, Ghosn remained committed to building at least 1 million of Nissan's cars and trucks in Japan annually.[118]
In June 2012, Ghosn was named deputy chairman of the board of directors of Russian automobile manufacturer AvtoVAZ.[119] In June 2013, he was appointed chairman of the Russian company, a position he retained through June 2016.[120][121][122][123][124] Renault had begun a strategic partnership with AvtoVAZ in 2008 by acquiring a 25% stake in the company;[125] this led to increasingly deeper partnerships between Renault–Nissan and AvtoVAZ,[126] ending in Renault–Nissan Alliance control of the Russian automaker in 2014.[127]
In February 2017, Ghosn announced he would step down as CEO of Nissan on April 1, 2017, while remaining chairman of the company.[25][128] Hiroto Saikawa, succeeded Ghosn at Nissan.[25] In November 2018, Renault owned 43.4% of Nissan, while Nissan owned non-voting shares equal to 15% of Renault's equity.[129][130]
Mitsubishi
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.[131][132][133]
Mitsubishi Motors board removed Ghosn from his role as chairman on November 26, 2018, following his arrest and ousting from Nissan for alleged financial misconduct.[30]
Advisorships
Ghosn served on the International Advisory Board of Brazilian bank Banco Itaú (a major party in the privatisation of Renault) until 2015.[134][135] He is also a member of the Advisory Board of Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management in Beijing.[136] He has received an honorary doctorate from American University of Beirut;[137] and he is a member of the Strategic Council, Saint Joseph University of Beirut.[138] In 2014 and 2015, he was elected president of the European Automobile Manufacturers Association.[139][140][141] He serves as governor of the World Economic Forum.[142]
Arrest in Tokyo and subsequent Nissan investigation
Initial arrest
On 19 November 2018, Tokyo District Prosecutors arrested Ghosn at 4:30 pm upon his re-entry into Japan aboard a private jet that had come from Lebanon,[143] for questioning over allegations of false accounting.[144][145][146][147] Ghosn's top aide Greg Kelly, a Nissan director and former head of human resources, was also arrested upon his arrival from the U.S. that day.[129]
On the same day, Nissan chief executive Hiroto Saikawa announced at a press conference that Ghosn had been dismissed from Nissan's board and would be stripped of executive rights at a meeting to be held on 22 November. Saikawa stressed that the dismissal was the result of an internal inquiry by Nissan.[148][145] Nissan Chief Executive Officer Hiroto Saikawa publicly alleged that Ghosn and Kelly under-reported their compensation (a violation of securities law) and used company assets for personal use.[149] While the allegations remained unproven in court, with due legal process pending, at the same news conference, Saikawa "expressed disappointment, indignation, and despair at Ghosn's conduct, which included using company funds for personal investments and misusing corporate assets" and also said, "This is an act that cannot be tolerated by the company ... It is sufficient grounds for his dismissal."[149]
Although the company did not provide details, reports in the Japanese media stated that Nissan was paying all or some of the costs at some amount of US$18 million for residences used by Ghosn in Rio de Janeiro, Beirut, Paris and Amsterdam, and that Ghosn charged family vacation expenses to the company.[147] The purchases of some of these residences and the payment of expenses were handled by a shell company named Zi-A Capital BV based in the Netherlands, which Kelly had instructed Nissan's board to set up to make venture investments at the end of 2010 (around the same time as Ghosn's divorce from his first wife and beginning of a relationship with his second wife).[129] Nissan funds were used to purchase Ghosn's Paris apartment in 2005, and Zi-A funds were used to purchase his $5 million beachfront Rio apartment in 2012 and his Beirut mansion, which, with renovations, cost over $15 million.[129] Nissan compliance auditors began trying to track Zi-A activity in 2014 but were stymied at first by the chain of shell companies used in Zi-A investments.[129]
In addition, to avoid reporting the full amount of his compensation in Nissan financials, as required by Japanese law beginning in 2010, Ghosn had Kelly structure complicated deferred payment plans which went unreported under an aggressive interpretation of the disclosure rules which Nissan's outside auditors had not signed off on, and which totaled around $80 million at the time of his arrest eight years later.[129] According to Nikkei reports, Ghosn told investigators that he instructed Kelly to handle the compensation reporting in a legal manner, and Kelly told investigators that he acted on advice from outside law firms and the Financial Services Agency in handling the reporting.[150][151] Leaks to the media said that Ghosn had planned to call a vote to fire Nissan CEO Saikawa and reinstate Kelly (who had semi-retired to the U.S. in 2015) to active service at the scheduled board meeting.[129]
Ghosn was detained at the Tokyo Detention House, under Japanese rules that allow suspects to be detained for up to 23 days without criminal charges being filed.[152] Ghosn and Kelly were reportedly arrested on information provided by an unidentified non-Japanese executive in Nissan's legal department, in the second deal ever struck under Japan's recently introduced plea bargaining system.[147] Charges were filed against Ghosn and Kelly on the underreporting of deferred compensation on 10 December, along with allegations of additional charges that restarted a 10-day holding period without bail.[129] Nissan also took control of the Rio and Beirut properties and changed the locks, which has led Ghosn's family to sue for access.[129]
Continued detention and new charges
On 21 December, Ghosn was re-arrested on suspicion of shifting to Nissan personal losses of US$16.6 million related to a personal swap contract in October 2008 (during the global financial crisis).[153] The introduction of those charges prevented Ghosn's release on bail later the same day, because the new charges permitted an additional 10–20 days of incarceration prior to a bail hearing.[153] Subsequent reporting linked this charge to Ghosn's dealings with Sheikh Khaled al-Juffali, the vice chairman of one of Saudi Arabia's largest conglomerates and majority owner of a company which owns half of a regional joint venture called Nissan Gulf, with the other half held by a wholly owned Nissan subsidiary.[154] In return for a personal letter of credit from Juffali to Ghosn during the 2008 crisis, which served as bank-demanded collateral for Ghosn's swap contract, Nissan indirectly paid $14.7 million from an internal discretionary fund known as the "CEO Reserve" to a wholly owned Juffali company in four installments between 2009 and 2012, although the internal documentation did not specify the ultimate recipient.[154] According to Tokyo prosecutors, Kelly was not involved in this transaction and so was released on bail on 25 December.[154]
Ghosn made his first public appearance after his arrest at an arraignment on Tuesday, 8 January 2019, where he asserted his innocence, making a statement in response to the main allegations against him; however, his bid to be released from prison on these charges was rejected.[155][156]
Ghosn's imprisonment was set to end on 11 January. That day, Ghosn was indicted on two additional charges: aggravated breach of trust and understating his income, once again extending his imprisonment.[157][158][32] As a result, he could remain in jail for months more before a trial takes place.[156] Two days later, Nissan's investigation allegedly found that, in addition to the underreporting of salary already charged, Ghosn had paid himself an undisclosed $8 million in 2018 from a Netherlands-based joint venture owned by Nissan and Mitsubishi that was set up in 2017, without the knowledge of either company's directors because Ghosn had the sole authority to dispense cash from the venture.[159]
Ghosn again appealed the denial of bail from 8 January and offered to meet greater restrictions and higher guarantees of appearance in return for his release, including wearing an ankle bracelet and posting his Nissan stock as collateral.[160] Additionally, on 14 January Ghosn's wife Carole published a letter that she wrote to Human Rights Watch protesting against his treatment in detainment.[130][161] Nevertheless, on 21 January, the Tokyo district court denied his appeal.[162]
Le Figaro[163][164] and CNN have reported with the words hostage justice.[165] In its report on the release of Carlos Ghosn, Financial Times stated that the Japanese judicial system is a country risk.[163][166]
Further developments
On 11 January,[167] José Muñoz, Nissan's chief performance officer and head of its China operations, resigned from the company, effective immediately.[168] Muñoz, considered to be a close ally to Ghosn and a possible successor as CEO of Renault and Nissan, had been a "person of interest" in Nissan's internal investigation, with which he was reported to be uncooperative.[168] One of Nissan's three independent directors opined that Nissan may simply eliminate the position of chairman and not replace Ghosn, a route previously taken by other scandal-plagued Japanese companies.[169] The Reuters Japan news service reported that Nissan may file suit against Ghosn personally.[161][170]
At first the French government and Renault had been reported to be standing behind Ghosn during his imprisonment, on the presumption that Ghosn is innocent until proven guilty.[32] However, France's financial minister Bruno Le Maire stated on 16 January that Renault may seek a new CEO to replace Ghosn due to his continued incarceration.[161][130] Renault also released a statement that day stating that the company is "actively working to find the best solution for the future governance of the group, with a view to preserving the company's interests and strengthening the Renault–Nissan Alliance".[161] As reported by The New York Times, Renault's appointment of a successor might not be due to Renault changing its view about his innocence but rather an acknowledgement of his inability to perform his duties from a Japanese prison.[130] Because Renault relies on significant financial contributions from Nissan under the Renault–Nissan Alliance, media reports say that Renault is worried that Nissan may be using the power vacuum at Renault to reshape the alliance's balance of power.[130][171] As a result, Ghosn resigned as chairman and CEO of Renault on 24 January 2019.[33]
On 30 January, Ghosn said the charges were "plot and treason" by executives at Nissan who opposed the relationship with Renault and a future plan that was in the works to integrate Nissan, Mitsubishi and Renault.[172] In mid-February, Ghosn's lawyer Motonari Otsuru stepped down and was replaced by Jun'ichirō Hironaka [ja], who has a record of persistence in obtaining acquittals in a number of high-profile cases.[173]
In early March, Ghosn was granted a request for bail in a Tokyo court. The court set his bail at 1 billion yen, (about US$9 million). This was his third bail request, and the first by his new legal team under Hironaka. Hironaka has stated that it would be "impossible" for him to front the cash to be released on bail the same day due to issues with the bank used to pay the bail and an appeal by the prosecutor's office.[174][175] The bail approval was subject to stringent controls, such as not traveling abroad. He was released on March 6, 2019. Under strict bail conditions, Ghosn remained at a house, under 24-hour camera surveillance, with no internet access.[176][177]
On April 3, Ghosn tweeted that he was "ready to tell the truth" and that he would hold a conference on April 11.[178] He was re-arrested for the fourth time early on April 4 over new suspicions of financial misconduct concerning alleged dealings via Oman.[179] Ghosn released a statement claiming the arrest was "outrageous and arbitrary".[180] Until that point in time he had been held for 108 days since he was first arrested in November 2018.
On 8 April 2019, during an extraordinary shareholders meeting, Nissan shareholders voted to remove Carlos Ghosn from the company board.[181] Shareholders also voted to remove Ghosn's former right-hand man Greg Kelly, and to appoint Renault chairman Jean-Dominique Senard as a director.[34]
On 9 April, Ghosn posted a YouTube video, where he publicly stated that he was "innocent of all the accusations that came around these charges that are all biased, taken out of context, twisted in a way to paint a personage of greed, and a personage of dictatorship". He also claimed that the payments to Juffali were meant to help Nissan fix a dispute with a local distributor, and to open a bank contract to convert his salary from yen to US dollars, in order to avoid currency swings.[182]
The Japanese court rejected an appeal filed by Ghosn's lawyers, and approved an initial 10 days detention for Ghosn, until April 22.[183] He was released in late April, but confined to strict house arrest, including having no contact with his wife for four months.[184]
In June 2019 French finance minister Bruno Le Maire said on TV that Carlos Ghosn could face legal in action in France after finding out about 11 million euros of dubious expenses.[185] Prosecutors in the district of Nanterre west of Paris stated that anti-fraud police had searched his residence in the town of L'Étang-la-Ville for evidence.[186] In July Renault's headquarters in Boulogne-Billancourt were searched by 20 police personnel in relation to this case.[187]
July 2019 saw Carlos Ghosn take action against French mass-media for libel.[citation needed]
In August Carole Ghosn appealed to President Emmanuel Macron of France to intercede on behalf of her husband with Japanese leader Shinzo Abe at the 45th G7 summit held from August 24–26[188][189] at the French town of Biarritz.[184]
Escape from Japan
On 30 December 2019, numerous media outlets reported that Ghosn fled Japan and arrived in Beirut, Lebanon.[190][191] Ghosn later confirmed these reports through a statement released by his press representative in New York.[192] In his statement, Ghosn claimed that he would "no longer be held hostage by a rigged Japanese justice system where guilt is presumed, discrimination is rampant and basic human rights are denied," adding that he did not flee justice, but "escaped injustice and political persecution."[192] A member of Ghosn's defense team in Japan said that he was "surprised and baffled" by Ghosn's departure.[193]
Following Ghosn's arrival in Lebanon, a Tokyo court granted a request by Japanese prosecutors to revoke his bail.[193] While Japan and Lebanon are both members of Interpol and have had diplomatic relations since 1954,[194] there is no extradition agreement between the two countries.[190]
Personal life
By his first marriage to Rita Kordahi in 1984, Ghosn is the father of four grown children: Caroline, Nadine, Maya and Anthony.[195] They divorced in 2012.[129] In May 2016, Ghosn married Carole Nahas and, a few months later in October, threw a large-scale 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.[196] He is reported by several Japanese media to have six private residences: in Tokyo, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Amsterdam, Beirut and New York.[197][198]
Ghosn, whom Forbes magazine called "the hardest-working man in the brutally competitive global car business",[49] splits his time between Paris and Tokyo and as of 2006 logged roughly 150,000 miles in airplanes per year.[49] Japanese media have called him "Seven-Eleven" ("work very hard from early in the morning till late at night").[77] He holds Brazilian, French, and Lebanese citizenships.[195] He has been noted for his direct, no-nonsense, results-oriented and execution-oriented style in business strategy meetings,[49] but also for his interest in resolving problems from within a company by listening to workers and by cross-functional and cross-cultural team groupings.[74]
Ghosn is multilingual, speaking four languages fluently: French, Portuguese, English, and Arabic, and he has also studied Japanese.[52][199] He maintains ties to Lebanon, where he lived for 10 years and where he completed his primary and secondary education. He is a partner in Ixsir, a winery in the northern coastal town of Batroun, Lebanon.[200] In 2012 he was named to the Honorary Board of the American Foundation of Saint George Hospital in Beirut.[201][202]
Ghosn was hailed as a potential presidential candidate in Lebanon.[203][204] 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.)[205][206][207][208] He has so far declined such overtures, saying he has "no political ambitions".[203]
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.[209]
In the media
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.[210] The series was published as a book in 2002.[77][211]
Ghosn is the subject of a number of books in English, Japanese, and French. In English, he wrote a best-selling business book called Shift: Inside Nissan's Historic Revival.[212] He was the subject of another business book called Turnaround: How Carlos Ghosn Rescued Nissan by David Magee.[213] 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.[214]
Awards and recognition
As a result of his achievements, Ghosn has had numerous awards and honors bestowed upon him. Some of these include:
In 2001, he topped TIME Magazine's list of Global Influentials, beating Bill Gates and several other globally renowned businessmen.[215]
In 2001, he was named Father of the Year by a Japanese community group.[216]
In 2002, he was appointed a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour (Knight of the Legion of Honour) by the French government.[217]
In 2002 Fortune awarded him Asia Businessman of the Year.[14][15]
In 2003, he was named Man of the Year by Fortune magazine's Asian edition.[17]
In 2003 Fortune listed him as one of the 10 most powerful business leaders outside the U.S.[16]
In 2004, he became the first foreign business leader to receive the prestigious Blue Ribbon Medal from Emperor Akihito of Japan.[218]
In 2004, he was added to the Automotive Hall of Fame.[219]
In 2004, he was also added to the Japan Automotive Hall of Fame.[220]
In 2006, Ghosn was made an Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire.[221]
In 2010, CEO Quarterly magazine listed Ghosn as one of the "Most Respected CEOs"[222]
In 2011, CNBC listed Ghosn as Asia Business Leader of the Year.[223]
In 2012, Ghosn was awarded the Grand Cordon of the Order of Ouissam Alaouite, an honorific designation to civilians in recognition of services that benefit Morocco.[224]
In 2012, Ghosn received the Japan Society Award.[225]
In 2012, Ghosn became the first person in the auto industry, and the fourth overall, to win a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Strategic Management Society, a non-profit group that promotes ethical and strategic business stewardship.[226]
In 2012, Ghosn was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic, an honorific designation to civilians in recognition of services that benefit Spain.[227]
In 2013, he was appointed an International Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.[228]
In 2017, Lebanon's national post office, LibanPost, unveiled a collectable stamp honoring Carlos Ghosn
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