Nissan Seeks Outside Director as Board Chairman

A Nissan Motor Co. board committee will recommend in late March that the carmaker appoint one person as its chairman and a second, external director to chair its board, sources tell The Nikkei.

In the past, both positions have automatically been held by the same person. But the company is now struggling to remedy what it considers an over-concentration of power that contributed to November’s arrest of Chairman Carlos Ghosn.

Ghosn, who held both chairmanships, continues to languish in jail on charges of hiding deferred compensation and transferring personal currency trading losses to the company.

A source tells The Nikkei that having two chairmen would foster management debate and more incisive oversight. The source notes that board meetings under Ghosn lasted no more than 30 minutes and involved little discussion.

The newspaper says the board’s governance panel also may recommend that Nissan set up independent committees to nominate executives and handle auditing and senior staff compensation.