Carlos Ghosn
Carlos Ghosn, KBE (born March 9, 1954) is a French-Lebanese-Brazilian businessman born in Porto Velho, Brazil, who is currently the Chairman and CEO of Paris-based Renault, Chairman and CEO of Japan-based Nissan, and Chairman of Russian automobile manufacturer AvtoVAZ. Ghosn is also Chairman and CEO of the Renault-Nissan Alliance, the strategic partnership overseeing Nissan and Renault through a unique cross-shareholding agreement. The Alliance, which includes AvtoVAZ, has held approximately 10% of the global market share from 2010 through to 2014, and as of 2014 is one of the top four automobile groups worldwide. After his radical restructuring of Renault that returned that company to profitability in the late 1990s Ghosn became known as "Le Cost Killer". In the early 2000s, for orchestrating one of the auto industry's most aggressive downsizing campaigns and spearheading the turnaround of Nissan from its near bankruptcy in 1999, he earned the nickname "Mr. Fix It". Following the Nissan financial turnaround, in 2002 Fortune awarded him Asia Businessman of the Year. In 2003 Fortune identified him as one of the 10 most powerful people in business outside the U.S., and its Asian edition voted him Man of the Year. Surveys jointly published by the Financial Times and PricewaterhouseCoopers named him the fourth most respected business leader in 2003, and the third most respected business leader in 2004 and in 2005. He quickly achieved celebrity status in Japan and in the business world, and his life has been chronicled in a Japanese manga comic book. Ghosn has been asked to run at least two other automakers, General Motors and Ford. His decision to spend €4 billion (more than $5 billion) so Renault and Nissan could jointly develop an entire lineup of electric cars including the Nissan Leaf, billed as "the world's first affordable zero-emission car", is one of the four subjects of the 2011 documentary Revenge of the Electric Car.