Ashwani Gupta to Resign From His Post As Nissan’s COO

Nissan’s COO Ashwani Gupta has called quits from the Japanese automaker company after reports of a leadership clash within the organization. Nissan confirmed the surprise departure of Ashwani Gupta which will revive concerns about the stability of the company’s leadership, which was in disarray following the arrest of former CEO Carlos Ghosn in 2018 for financial wrongdoing.

According to the company, Gupta elected to leave the company to pursue other opportunities effectively from June 27. However, he did not give many details about his departure. Nissan further added that they will be announcing the new executive line-up on the same date.

Speaking of, Gupta has been the COO  of the company since December 2019, which was a time of turmoil for the company as the ex-chief Carlos Ghosn was arrested a year earlier and later jumped bail and fled Japan. As a result, it caused Nissan great distress.

Since then, the company has struggled to rebalance its alliance with French automaker Renault due to rivalry between Gupta and CEO Makoto Uchida, according to a report published on Thursday by the Financial Times.

The British newspaper reported that Multiple internal complaints that some believed were an effort to engineer Gupta’s resignation led to his decision to resign. According to a source familiar with the situation who confirmed Gupta’s impending departure to AFP, the number-two executive didn’t want to stay in his current position because he wanted to one day become CEO.

The source said that Gupta adamant about wanting the top position. Although he wasn’t compelled to leave, he had realised that it wouldn’t be possible in a “very Japanese” organisation still reeling from the Ghosn scandal. Furthermore, the source added that there was a rivalry between Gupta and Uchida. According to the Financial Times, an official announcement regarding Gupta’s departure from the company could occur in the next few days. Nissan declined to respond directly to this report.