Nissan will not fill COO position left open by Gupta’s departure

TOKYO (Reuters) – Nissan Motor Co has decided to not fill in the chief operating officer position vacated by Ashwani Gupta under a new management structure, the Japanese automaker said on Wednesday.

Responsibilities previously carried out by the operations chief will be taken over by other executives, it said.

Hideyuki Sakamoto, executive vice president in charge of manufacturing and supply chain management, will be responsible for purchasing. Chief Financial Officer Stephen Ma will take over operations performance duties.

“In response to the constantly evolving market conditions, we will introduce a flatter and agile leadership structure, which will further empower regional and functional leadership,” Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida said in a statement.

Nissan said earlier this month Gupta would leave the Japanese automaker to pursue other opportunities, following an announcement he would not be reappointed to the board of directors at the end of his term. His last day at Nissan was Tuesday.

Japan’s No.3 automaker is investigating accusations that Uchida carried out surveillance of Gupta, Reuters has reported.

Nissan is in the midst of finalising the terms of a sweeping reset of its decades-old alliance with Renault SA.

Gupta had clashed with Uchida over Uchida’s desire to close the negotiations with Renault quickly, with Gupta urging more caution over terms of the deal, people with knowledge of the talks have told Reuters.

(Reporting by Satoshi Sugiyama; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)