Renault Convenes Board Meeting as CEO’s Future Hangs in Balance
Renault Convenes Board Meeting as CEO’s Future Hangs in Balance
(Bloomberg) -- Renault SA’s board will meet to discuss governance matters on Friday amid intensifying speculation about the future of Chief Executive Officer Thierry Bollore.
The carmaker plans to communicate following the meeting, it said Thursday, shortly after Bollore addressed staff in an online session. The 56-year-old CEO dodged questions about his future role, saying any decision to replace him would come from the board, according to people familiar with the matter.
A meeting between Bollore and Chairman Jean-Dominique Senard had been scheduled for the morning, according to one of the people who asked not to be named because the information isn’t public. A spokeswoman for Renault declined to comment on the reasons behind their meeting and on the online session.
A change at the top of Renault would signal the French carmaker and its long-time partner Nissan Motor Co. are working in sync to remove executives from the era under former leader Carlos Ghosn, who is awaiting trial in Japan on charges of financial crimes he has denied. Nissan this week named a new CEO and two other top managers. Bollore was Ghosn’s second-in-command and became CEO in January.
Bloomberg and other media have reported that relations between Senard and Bollore are tense. Bollore has also long been viewed with suspicion by the French government, which holds a 15% stake in Renault, as a holdover from the years when the carmaker was run by Ghosn.
Possible contenders are already emerging to replace Bollore. Renault’s former chief operating officer, Patrick Pelata, who left his position after an espionage scandal but kept an advisory role at the Renault-Nissan alliance until last year, said he would be ready to help Renault temporarily “if this allows a faster or more serene transition” to a new management team.
Following Ghosn’s arrest in November 2018, outsiders cited possible replacements including Carlos Tavares, a former Renault executive who is now CEO of rival automaker PSA Group, and Airbus SE’s former head of commercial aircraft, Fabrice Bregier, as well as Didier Leroy, a senior executive at Toyota Motor Corp.
“I’m not a candidate and I wasn’t contacted.,” Leroy said by phone. “I’m very happy at Toyota and I have the trust of Akio Toyoda.” Toyoda is CEO of Toyota.
The French government has been pushing Renault and Nissan for months to repair their broken relationship and strengthen their three-way alliance with Mitsubishi Motors Corp.
Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa resigned in September following a scandal over pay, and this week the carmaker tapped Makoto Uchida, 53, the head of its China joint venture, as CEO, to work alongside new Chief Operating Officer Ashwani Gupta.
To contact the reporter on this story: Ania Nussbaum in Paris at anussbaum5@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anthony Palazzo at apalazzo@bloomberg.net, Tara Patel
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