Sayonara Tokyo, hello Seattle
One of the youngest and well-respected PR chiefs in the auto industry is moving on. Just days after Nissan Motor Co. reported a massive loss and revealed plans to slash jobs around the world, Simon Sproule has announced he will be among those leaving the troubled Asian maker – in this case voluntarily. Sproule will become vice president and global public relations chief at Seattle-based Microsoft Corp., starting March 2nd.
“A big brand like that comes along for someone like me only once in a lifetime,” said Sproule, talking to TheDetroitBureau.com from the offices, in Tokyo, which he will officially vacate on February 27th.
So far, no word on who will replace him at Nissan. But the British-born media relations executive responded with a stern, “no,” when asked if his departure had anything to do with the announcement, on Monday, that Nissan would go billions of dollars into the red for the fiscal year ending March 31st, triggering 20,000 job cuts worldwide. Sproule said he had already signed up with Microsoft before the bad news became apparent.
Just 40, Sproule has been a close confidante and advisor to Carlos Ghosn, who serves the dual role as CEO of both Nissan and its French alliance partner, Renault. Sproule began his career in Britain, serving a number of years with Ford Motor Co. and its former British subsidiary, Jaguar, before jumping to Nissan, where he spent a year running the automaker’s U.S. PR operations.
Five years ago, he was recruited to take on the media relations role on a global basis, relocating to Japan, by Ghosn himself. The Brazilian-born CEO believed that Nissan needed to have a more heterogeneous outlook on the world than the traditional Japanese company, and recruited an assortment of foreigners, such as Sproule and former global marketing chief Steve Wilhite. In recent years, most of the “gaijin,” including Wilhite, and now Sproule, have left Nissan’s offices, however.
Sproule, who holds a bachelor’s of science in geography from the University of London, King’s College, was named one of the auto industry’s young leaders to watch, five years ago, by the Automotive Hall of Fame, in suburban Detroit.
His move out of the auto industry comes just days after another seeming star bailed out. Tony Cervone, currently second-in-command at General Motors, and seen as the likely successor to public relations boss Steve Harris, announced he would move to Chicago, to take over PR duties at United Airlines.