Carlos Ghosn is a successful businessman with roots in Brazil, Lebanon, and France. He has played important roles in the auto industry. He is the chairman and CEO of the Renault-Nissan Alliance, which is the largest automotive group in the world. He is also the chairman and CEO of Renault, a French car company; the CEO of Nissan, a Japanese car company; and the chairman of Mitsubishi Motors.
He was a big part of turning Nissan around, and now he is taking on the hard job of reorganizing Mitsubishi Motors. He speaks four languages: French, Portuguese, English, and Arabic.
Childhood:—
Carlos was born on March 9, 1954, in Porto Velho, Brazil, as the son of Jorge Gosh. Bichara Ghosn, his grandfather, moved from Lebanon when he was 13 and worked in rubber, aviation, and farming. His mother was also from Lebanon and of Nigerian descent.
Carlos became sick at the age of 2 due to the consumption of unhygienic water, and he was moved to Rio de Janeiro. However, he did not fully recover. His mother took him and his sister to Beirut, Lebanon, where his grandmother lived.
Education:—
He went to the Jesuit School in Lebanon for high school and then moved to Paris.
Before getting degrees in engineering, he took prep classes at College Stanislas and Lycee Saint-Louis. He studied at the Ecole Polytechnique (1974) and the Ecole des Mines de Paris (1978) to obtain engineering degrees.
Career:—
His first job was at Michelin, the largest tire manufacturer in Europe. From 1978, he spent 18 years in the company, where he was gradually promoted to higher positions in France and Germany.
He went on to become the Chief Operating Officer of the tire company’s South American operations. In 1990, he became CEO of Michelin North America.
Turnaround and Restructuring Expert:
The most interesting parts of his job are the difficult tasks of restructuring and turning around operations that he has done at Michelin, Nissan, Renault, and now Mitsubishi. The first restructuring exercise he undertook was after Michelin acquired Uniroyal Goodrich Tire Company. When he was inducted into Renault as Executive Vice President in 1996, the organization was ailing.
He was given charge of purchasing, engineering, and research at Renault’s South American division. He helped the organization go back to profitability within a year. He joined Nissan as its Chief Operating Officer in 1999 and became its Chief Executive Officer in 2001.
He made a lot of changes, like laying off a lot of people, closing factories that were losing money, getting rid of weak affiliates, and changing the rigid management structure. Very quickly, the organization became profitable.
Mitsubishi Revival:—
As Chairman of the Japanese company Mitsubishi Motors Corp., he is in charge of reorganizing this car company that is making a loss after it was bought by the Renault-Nissan alliance. The new alliance makes it the fourth-largest automaker after Toyota, Volkswagen, and General Motors.
Career Highlights:—
Carlos was the first CEO to run two Fortune Global 500 companies at the same time. In 2005, he became CEO of Mitsubishi and Chairman and CEO of the Renault–Nissan Alliance.
He has been the automobile industry’s leading advocate of sustainable transportation. This led the Renault-Nissan Alliance to manufacture affordable zero-emission cars and commercial vehicles.
In 1999, Renault bought 36.85% of Nissan’s shares. This was the start of the Renault-Nissan alliance. It has 450,000 employees in 200 nations and 122 manufacturing plants. The alliance also has a controlling stake in Russia’s largest automobile company, AVTOVAZ.
He helped build a long-lasting cross-cultural relationship in the automobile industry. With Mitsubishi joining the alliance, the total number of vehicles produced in 2016 will be 10 million.
Other positions held
He is a member of the International Advisory Council of Tsinghua University and the Strategic Council of Saint Joseph University in Beirut.
Courtesy: Success Story