Heres some reports on him

Carlos Ghosn is known to work upwards of 70 hours a week, jet-setting to and from various continents to monitor an auto empire that he has been lauded worldwide for rescuing.

Ghosn (rhymes with "cone") runs two of the largest car companies in the world -- Nissan Motor Co. and Renault SA, of which he became chief executive officer last April.

Ghosn, 52, is known in the auto industry as a legendary turnaround man for saving nearly bankrupt Nissan in 1999-2001 after Renault bought a controlling stake in the Japanese automaker. He restored profits to Nissan in 2000 and cut the company's $19-billion debt in half in two years.

Nissan and Renault now have combined sales of $133 billion a year, with a net income of $8 billion and 9.7% in market share.

"When you look at his track record, it's certainly impressive in the sense that he did something that no one else had ever done -- a non-Asian becoming a CEO of a Japanese car company," Joe Phillippi, a principal at New Jersey-based AutoTrends Consulting, said Friday. "He had the strong medicine that a then-very sick car company, Nissan, needed to get back on its feet."

Before his position at Nissan, Ghosn worked in virtual obscurity, spending 18 years at the Michelin Group tire manufacturer after graduate school in Paris.

In 1996, Renault tapped him to help cut costs and reverse heavy losses. Forbes magazine says he was nicknamed "Le Cost Killer" because of his overhaul, which included closing a factory and laying off 3,200 workers. He hated the nickname.

"The leader has to be somebody the people ... want to hear from," Ghosn told the Free Press last year.

"He can't be somebody scary or indifferent. The motivational aspect of leadership is very important."

Despite the negative moniker, he built a solid reputation for himself as a get-it-done man. Nissan came calling for help in 1999. Renault offered $5 billion and Ghosn.

Forbes says Nissan's then-president, Yoshikazu Hanawa, now honorary chairman, stepped aside.

Nissan has grappled with weaker sales during the past eight months, and during a shareholder's meeting Tuesday, Ghosn acknowledged it may fall short of its forecast. He said he was confident that a string of new models to be unveiled after Oct. 1 would help improve the bottom line.

But others say that despite his superhero status, he isn't infallible.

"He doesn't walk on water, and he can't fly through the air," said Jim Hossack, an industry analyst with AutoPacific, a consulting firm in California.

"He's intelligent, hard-working and charismatic, but he's not Superman and neither is anybody else," said Hossack, who added that an alliance with GM would give even Ghosn headaches.

"GM is big and complex. ...If you haven't had 25 years at GM learning the quirks of the organization, the unions and the suppliers...this isn't a game you can easily learn," he said.

Maryann Keller, a veteran automotive analyst, agreed that Ghosn, once featured as a comic-book hero in Japan, has run out of tricks.

"I think Kirk Kerkorian thinks Ghosn is a magician, and I don't think he is," Keller said. "He did the obvious things to fix Nissan, but right now, he is struggling with trying to maintain Nissan against Toyota and Honda, and he's not succeeding."

Phillippi said the only way a potential Ghosn merger with General Motors Corp. would work would be for GM Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner to step down.

"They'd have to take over GM -- either 100% or at least 51%, so they are in charge. Carlos is going to have to run the store."


Carlos Ghosn, the troubleshooter charged with reviving Nissan Motor Co. (NSANY), likes to be called the ''Icebreaker.'' It's a nickname he got from DaimlerChrysler Chairman Jurgen E. Schrempp for his skill at ignoring local business practices that stand in the way of making money. The 46-year-old Brazilian-born Ghosn has worked in turnaround situations at Renault in France and at Michelin's U.S. operations. He moved to Nissan in Japan in 1999 and has vowed to quit if the auto maker isn't profitable by March.

His so-called Nissan Revival seems to be working. But Ghosn is definitely an iconoclast. He passes up power breakfasts to stay home and eat with his four kids. He defies Japanese business etiquette and shakes hands with every employee he meets, not just top managers. And he has cut thousands of Nissan jobs, shut the first of five domestic plants, and auctioned off prized assets such as Nissan's aerospace unit. Result? Nissan was in the black for the six months ended in September and expects record profits of $2.3 billion for fiscal 2001.

But his radical moves have made him Public Enemy No. 1 to Japanese traditionalists, not to mention the influential Japan Auto Parts Industries Assn., which has publicly rebuked Nissan's new management. When Ghosn skipped a New Year's party hosted by Nissan's own parts suppliers, it was considered a sign of bad faith. That was ''a good lesson,'' says a chastened Ghosn, who vows to attend the 2001 party.

If the Icebreaker succeeds in restoring Nissan's health, industry talk is that he may return to Renault as its boss. Then he can breach French etiquette.