Nissan Motor Company has effected a major reshuffle of the top management in India as well as the neighbouring region.
The company on Friday announced that Takayuki Ishida, currently general manager, India Department, Nissan Nissan Motor, in Japan, will relocate to Chennai to take up the role of MD, Nissan Motor India (NMIPL). He replaces the incumbent Kiminobu Tokuyama, who is returning to Japan to take up an executive position with the Yorozu Corporation, one of the leading automobile component suppliers of Nissan.
Nissan also announced that Toshihiko Sano, currently GM (vehicle production engineering) with Nissan Motor Company in Japan has been promoted to MD, Renault Nissan Automotive India (RNAIPL). He replaces Kou Kimura, currently MD of the Chennai plant, who will return to Japan to take up a senior position within NML’s manufacturing and industrial engineering division.
As such, Sano will relocate to Chennai and assume responsibility of Nissan’s manufacturing operations at the alliance production facility in Oragadam.
Both Ishida and Sano will report to Toru Hasegawa, currently president, Nissan Motor Asia Pacific Company (NMAP) and Nissan Motor (Thailand) Company and Regional vice-president, Asia & Oceania Operations.
Hasegawa has been appointed corporate vice-president, Africa, Middle East and India (AMI).
According to a statement, Sano has over 30 years? experience with Nissan, working in several production facilities in Japan, Indonesia and North America in a range of key engineering roles, including new model launch preparation. One of his responsibilities at RNAIPL will be to manage the continued development of the Chennai plant, which recently doubled its production capacity to 4 lakh units per year.
According to Hasegawa, ?Nissan is becoming an increasingly significant presence in India. We recently added to our already broad product range with the popular Sunny sedan and announced that the all-new Evalia will go into production in Chennai this summer.We are targeting 1 lakh vehicle sales in India by FY2013, supported by a tripling of our retail network. And, from 2014, we will introduce the Datsun brand focusing on quality-driven products that are relevant to our Indian customers.?
