Former Toyota and Chrysler exec Jim Press has resurfaced working for the Renault/Nissan Alliance.
Once the most powerful American in the Japanese auto industry, Jim Press has resurfaced, this time working for the Renault/Nissan Alliance.
The 63-year-old Press is serving as a consultant on sales, service and marketing issues for the Euro-Asian partnership, a Nissan/Renault spokesman says.
A former board member with Toyota Motor Co. and the maker’s top-ranked U.S. executive, Press had most recently been working as a vice chairman for Chrysler until the maker’s 2009 bankruptcy.
“Jim is already making a great contribution to the business,” said Renault/Nissan spokesman Simon Sproule, confirming Press’s involvement with the Alliance.
It is expected that Press will focus on his traditional areas of expertise, which include sales, service and marketing issues. He has also had a traditionally strong relationship with dealers.
Press is credited with helping Toyota grow from a marginal player in the U.S. into a true powerhouse that, in 2009 surged to the number two spot in the American market, barely two percentage points behind the market share of troubled General Motors. (The maker, in the wake of its recent safety problems – Click Here for the latest news – has slipped behind Ford to the number three slot during the first half of 2010.)
That earned him the singular role, in 2007, of being named to the Toyota Motor Co. board of directors, the first “gaijin” to win that position. But after being bumped from the automaker’s U.S. headquarters, in California, to a New York job where he’d be less involved in day-to-day activities, Press decided to leave the automaker.
He quickly resurfaced at troubled Chrysler, where he served as vice chairman under Chairman and CEO Bob Nardelli, the former head of Home Depot. Press remained with Chrysler until June of 2009, when the automaker emerged from bankruptcy and reorganized with the assistance of a massive government bailout under the control of Italy’s Fiat.
Last September, it was revealed that Press owed $1.35 million in back taxes and for an unpaid personal loan. The executive contended that Chrysler’s bankruptcy, and the decision not to pay promised bonuses, caused his financial problems.
As Renault/Nissan has declined to reveal details of the contract, it is not known how long Press, an avid swimmer, will remain with the Alliance.