Ghosn: I declined an offer to become GM’s CEO, I’m responsible for Renault-Nissan

Earlier this month its was reported that the Obama administration wanted Renault/Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn to lead General Motors once it came out of a government scripted bankruptcy. The news was made popular by Steven Rattner’s, the former auto czar for President Obama, tell-all book about his six months with the new administration.

Ghosn today confirmed that he was indeed asked by Rattner to become CEO of GM. In an interview with CNN today, Ghosn said that he turned down the offer and said that he had asked Rattner to support a move to include GM in the Renault-Nissan alliance.

“He proposed for me to take the job as CEO of General Motors and I declined,” Ghosn said. “I declined for a very simple reason … We still are in one of the worst downturns that the auto industry has faced in its history and I felt that I can’t quit. I am responsible for Nissan and Renault.”

Ghosn went onto say that in the middle of a “storm — you are in charge. You have to deliver, you have to get the company out of the storm. So it was not the time to leave.”

Ghosn also went on to say that he still believed that a potential tie-up between GM and Renault/Nissan would make sense to “share in the synergies.”

– By: Stephen Calogera

Source: Detroit News