PARIS, Sept 03 (Reuters): A senior Renault-Nissan executive has quit the troubled carmaking alliance to join Peugeot maker PSA Group, blaming Renault boss Thierry Bollore for forcing his exit.
Former alliance director Arnaud Deboeuf will become PSA's industrial strategy director under Chief Executive Carlos Tavares, himself a former Renault second-in-command, the rival French carmaker confirmed on Tuesday.
Deboeuf's exit underscores deep tensions threatening to subsume the Renault-Nissan alliance in the wake of the November 2018 arrest of former Chairman Carlos Ghosn, now awaiting trial in Japan on financial misconduct charges he denies.
Those tensions have been exacerbated by failed attempts under Bollore and new Renault Chairman Jean-Dominique Senard to secure a full Renault-Nissan merger and to combine Renault with Fiat Chrysler, a move thwarted by the French state.
Deboeuf was well regarded at Nissan and even offered a senior executive role at the Japanese carmaker, as his relations with Bollore soured following Ghosn's ouster, three sources told Reuters. But Bollore, a former Ghosn protégé who succeeded his absent boss as CEO in January, blocked the move.
"Thierry Bollore told me no one wanted to work with me ... and that I could not go to work at Nissan either," Deboeuf said in a farewell email to colleagues seen by Reuters.
Executive’s flight to PSA highlights Renault-Nissan alliance tensions
FE Team | Published: September 03, 2019 23:28:10
Executive’s flight to PSA highlights Renault-Nissan alliance tensions
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