Renault names Tavares as new COO

RENAULT has announced the appointment of Nissan Americas boss Carlos Tavares as the French manufacturer’s new chief operating officer.

Reporting directly to Renault chairman and CEO Carlos Ghosn, Mr Tavares replaces Patrick Pelata, who stepped down in April over his role in a bungled investigation in which three executives were falsely accused of feeding secrets of the company’s electric vehicle development program to China.

In a statement, Renault said Mr Tavares would oversee the implementation of the Renault 2016 ‘Drive the Change’ program, which aims to ensure the company “accelerates its growth in all international markets and increases its presence in new technologies, particularly electric vehicles”.

Other priorities specifically identified are “permanent improvement in competitiveness” and “the development of sites in France”.

The latter has become a key issue for the French government, which owns a 15 per cent share of Renault and has reportedly made support for Mr Tavares’ appointment conditional on boosting production in France.

Overseas reports also indicate that Mr Ghosn, who also presides over Nissan, will now increase his involvement at Renault and that the number-two position held by Mr Tavares will not run to full daily operational oversight that Mr Pelata assumed.

Left: Renault chairman and CEO Carlos Ghosn. Below: Tavares' predecessor, Patrick Pelata.

Mr Ghosn described the appointment as “a first step in strengthening Renault’s management”.

“Carlos Tavares knows the automotive industry in all its dimensions: design, engineering, production, marketing, sales and international deployment,” he said.

“His talent and experience will be key strengths for Renault and for all its employees as we go into the first year of our Renault 2016 ‘Drive the Change’ program.

“For my part, I am fully committed to the development of Renault and the management of the (Renault-Nissan) Alliance.”

Mr Tavares, 52, is a Portuguese national who has spent most of his working life with Renault, holding a wide range of posts over more than 20 years in the engineering and programs division before moving to Nissan in 2004.

He joined the Japanese manufacturer, in which Renault holds a 43.4 per cent stake, as program director and was soon promoted to vice-president of product strategy and product planning.

In 2005 he was appointed executive vice-president at Nissan, joining the board of directors, and in 2009 assumed responsibility for operations at Nissan Americas.

In the US, Nissan executive vice-president and ‘chief performance officer’ Colin Dodge, who is also chairman of the AMIE (Africa, Middle East, India and Europe) region, will take on the additional responsibility of chairman of the Americas region, which comprises North, Central and South America.

Mr Dodge will be assisted by Bill Krueger, who has been promoted to a newly created position of vice-chairman of Nissan Americas and will be responsible for the day-to-day operations of Nissan Americas’ business in the US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil and 37 other Latin American and Caribbean countries.

Krueger’s most recent role was senior-vice president of manufacturing, purchasing, supply chain management and ‘total customer satisfaction’ for Nissan Americas, overseeing all manufacturing and supply-chain management functions for Nissan’s three plants in the US and its two plants in Mexico.

As GoAuto has reported, Mr Pelata has remained within the Renault-Nissan Alliance, working on unspecified programs.