Carlos Ghosn (born March 9, 1954) is a Lebanese-Brazilian-French businessman, born in Porto Velho, Brazil. He is currently the Chairman and CEO of Renault, based in France, and the Chairman and CEO of Nissan, based in Japan. From June 2013 to June 2016, Ghosn also served as chairman of the Russian carmaker AvtoVAZ. Additionally, he is Chairman and CEO of the Renault-Nissan Alliance, the strategic partnership that oversees Nissan and Renault through a unique cross-shareholding structure. The Alliance, which includes AvtoVAZ, held approximately 10% of the global auto market from 2010 to 2014, making it one of the top four global car groups by 2014.
Following his radical restructuring of Renault—which returned the company to profitability in the late 1990s—Ghosn became known as “Le Cost Killer.” In the 2000s, for orchestrating one of the most aggressive workforce reduction campaigns in the automotive industry and spearheading Nissan’s turnaround from the brink of bankruptcy in 1999, he earned the nickname “Mr. Fix It.”
After Nissan’s financial turnaround, Fortune named him Asia Businessman of the Year in 2002. In 2003, Fortune ranked him among the 10 most powerful people in business outside the U.S., and he was voted Man of the Year by Fortune Asia. Surveys conducted jointly by the Financial Times and PricewaterhouseCoopers named him the fourth most respected business leader in 2003, and the third most respected in 2004 and 2005. He quickly reached celebrity status in Japan and in the global business community, and his life story was adapted into a Japanese manga comic book biography.
Ghosn has been approached for top management positions by at least two other major automakers: General Motors and Ford. His decision to invest €4 billion (over $5 billion) for Renault and Nissan to jointly develop a full lineup of electric cars—including the Nissan Leaf, considered “the first affordable zero-emissions car”—was one of the four main storylines featured in the 2011 documentary Revenge of the Electric Car.