Carlos Ghosn, the ill-fated CEO that strongly betted on Mexico

22 November, 2018

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Earlier this week, former Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn was arrested in Japan for allegedly omitting the actual information from his corporate compensation in the reports sent to the stock market.

He joined Nissan as Chief Operating Officer in June 1999 and served as CEO from June 2001 until April 2017 when he was succeeded by Hiroto Saikawa.

Regardless of what the fate holds, it is undeniable that the executive of Lebanese–Brazilian–French origin was characterized by betting strongly on Mexico's potential, since during its tenure the investment that the Japanese automaker made in Mexico is estimated at US$ 3.5 billion, according to Alicia Salgado from Excelsior.

This investment was distributed in expansions and improvements to the two Nissan plants in Aguascalientes, the Cuernavaca facility and the co-investment with Daimler for the COMPAS site that manufactures Infiniti and Mercedes Benz cars, also located in Aguascalientes.

These large sums of money led to a production ramp up of 365%, from 169,339 units built in 1999 to 787,876 vehicles in 2017, although the peak of production was achieved in 2016, when 863,915 cars and light trucks were produced, according to figures published by Aguascalientes-based news site Desde la Red.

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