NSANY Nissan Motor Company Ltd (PK)

By Sean McLain in Tokyo and Nick Kostov in Paris 

Nissan Motor Co.'s search for a new chief executive is focusing on three candidates who the company hopes will bring international experience and a fresh outlook to the troubled car maker, according to people familiar with the board's thinking.

The current top candidates include Takeshi Niinami, chief executive of Japanese beverage giant Suntory Holdings Ltd., said one of the people. Also under consideration are Jun Seki, the Nissan executive overseeing the company's business recovery, and Ashwani Gupta, the chief operating officer of Mitsubishi Motors Corp. and a former Renault SA executive, the people said.

There could be additions or subtractions to the list before Nissan's board meets in early October, said one of the people. Nissan's nomination committee has yet to make any formal decisions on the candidate list, said another one of the people.

Mr. Niinami said he hadn't been contacted by Nissan and wasn't interested in switching jobs right now. "There are so many things left to do as Suntory CEO," Mr. Niinami said in an email, adding that it was an honor to hear he was in the running.

Nissan declined to comment on the proceedings of the board.

The board wants someone with international experience and a solid reputation in Japan who isn't connected to the current turmoil at Nissan, said people familiar with the board's thinking.

The next leader will have to navigate a fraught relationship with alliance partner Renault SA and restore morale at Nissan.

"It's a huge task. I don't know if you get a candidate who can fulfill all of these, but you want as many as possible," said one of the people.

Many Nissan employees have been worn down by the case against former Chairman Carlos Ghosn and dismal business results. Mr. Ghosn has been charged with financial crimes in Japan. He says he is innocent.

Renault has a say in the Nissan CEO decision, because Renault Chairman Jean-Dominique Senard and CEO Thierry Bolloré are Nissan directors. Mr. Senard also sits on the nomination committee.

Mr. Seki, 58, is a Nissan senior vice president with experience in China and the U.S., the company's two most important markets. After five years in China through last year, he was put in charge of overhauling Nissan's business around the world by former CEO Hiroto Saikawa, who resigned this month. Nissan declined to make Mr. Seki available for comment.

Mr. Gupta, 49, is the chief operating officer at Mitsubishi Motors Corp., the third member of the Renault-Nissan alliance. The India-born former Renault executive could help repair relations within the alliance. Mr. Gupta's other job is to oversee cooperation between the three companies on pickup trucks, vans and sport-utility vehicles -- a job that involves balancing competing engineering teams and negotiating technology sharing between the companies. Mr. Gupta is a Japanese speaker and started his career at Honda Motor Co.

Mitsubishi Motors declined to comment. Mr. Gupta didn't respond to a request for comment sent to Mitsubishi Motors.

Mr. Niinami, 60, is a rarity in Japan, a Japanese CEO who is at home both at the global economic summit in Davos, Switzerland, and in domestic political circles where he serves on a council advising Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

A graduate of Harvard Business School, Mr. Niinami started his career at trading company Mitsubishi Corp., which has a minority stake in Mitsubishi Motors, before leaving to become CEO of convenience-store chain Lawson Inc. In 2014, Mr. Niinami joined Suntory to help manage the Japanese whisky maker's acquisition of bourbon maker Beam Inc. The job involved managing relations between companies with different cultures on opposite sides of the Pacific.

--Megumi Fujikawa contributed to this article.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 26, 2019 09:02 ET (13:02 GMT)

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