TOKYO – Mike Colleran has been appointed the new global head of the struggling Infiniti premium brand as part of a personnel shuffle at parent company Nissan Motor Co.
Colleran, currently deputy chairman of Infiniti’s management committee, will become chairman starting April 1 and be promoted to corporate vice president at Nissan, the company said on Wednesday.
He will report to Nissan Chief Quality Officer Christian Vandenhende, who had filled in as Infiniti chairman following the departure of previous Infiniti President Christian Meunier in May to become global president of the Jeep brand. Meunier’s resignation came just four months after the departure of his predecessor, Roland Krueger, deepening a leadership crisis at the brand.
A former captain in the U.S. Marines, Colleran steps into Infiniti at a delicate time.
The brand is moving its head office back to Japan from Hong Kong this year and is battling slumping sales. Infiniti sales in the U.S., the brand’s biggest market, slumped 21 percent to 117,708 vehicles last year in a market down just 1.2 percent. Meanwhile, it is trying to transition to an electrified lineup as the parent company slashes costs amid tumbling profits. Infiniti has quit Europe and is focusing instead on the key markets of North America and China.
Colleran joined Nissan in 2011 as vice president of sales in Canada. He previously worked as group vice president for Infiniti Americas, overseeing business in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
He holds a bachelor’s degree from California Lutheran University and an MBA from Marymount University in Washington, D.C.
Among other personnel changes announced by Nissan, former executive Hideaki Watanabe will return to the company as senior vice president in charge of corporate strategy, new mobility, corporate governance, corporate management and board of director affairs.
Watanabe was previously Nissan’s corporate vice president in charge of zero emissions vehicles, a portfolio that included the Leaf EV. He left the company in 2013 to join Nissan-affiliated supplier Calsonic Kansei Corp., which merged with Italy’s Magneti Marelli in 2018. Watanabe is currently an executive vice president at the new combined supplier, Marelli Corp.
