Nissan Names Design, Planning Chiefs for Infiniti Brand

Nissan Motor Corp. has created two more executive positions to help differentiate its Infiniti luxury brand.

Infiniti President Johan de Nysschen has been creating a new global management team for Infiniti to help push the marque's sales from 170,000 units last year to 500,000 units in four years.

Toshihiro Hirai took over as head of Infiniti's global product planning on April 1. He will oversee all future vehicle programs for the 24-year-old brand.

Hirai has held several senior powertrain engineering positions with Nissan in Europe and Japan. He holds a degree in mechanical engineering from Japan's Waseda University.

Earlier this week Nissan announced that Alfonso Albaisa has been named to the new position of executive design director for Infiniti. He joined Nissan's design unit in California in 1988, later becoming Nissan's design chief for the Americas and then Europe. Albaisa took over as design director for Nissan brand passenger cars last year.

He graduated from Pratt Institute in New York City and attended the College for Creative Studies in Detroit.