One of Bartsch's last public duties was handling the debut of the Infiniti Q60 Concept.

Infiniti’s new global CEO is a man who clearly wants his own team in place. And, apparently, Michael Bartsch wasn’t on his list.

The Australian-born Bartsch has been given his walking papers as head of the luxury brand’s U.S. operations, and will be replaced by Randy Parker. The move comes as Infiniti makes some aggressive moves to position itself as a major global luxury brand.

But while worldwide sales hit a record last year, the brand’s performance in the U.S. lagged behind the rest of the market, apparently leading to the latest shake-up.

Bartsch was at the helm of Infiniti Americas for barely two years. But his tenure came at a challenging time. Long lagging in Tier II status, the Nissan luxury brand had launched a well-funded effort to become a true challenger to leaders like Lexus, BMW and Mercedes-Benz.

The campaign was out of Hong Kong by Johan de Nysschen, a former Audi senior executive, who envisioned a much broader product landscape that included a new line of performance products called Eau Rouge – and meant to compete with the likes of BMW’s formidable M brand.

But the effort hit a series of speed bumps last year, notably with the sudden departure of de Nysschen, who was lured to the U.S. by Cadillac, where he became that brand’s new global CEO.

(Click Here for more on Caddy’s strategy, including a controversial new ad campaign.)

De Nysschen was just one of several key management changes for Infiniti and Nissan. The parent brand also saw the unexpected departure of its global planning chief, Andy Palmer, who has become the new CEO of Britain’s Aston Martin. And Palmer was joined by Simon Sproule, the former Nissan corporate PR and marketing chief.

It has taken months just to get over de Nysschen’s departure. His replacement, former BMW exec Roland Kruger, only officially took to his new office in Hong Kong last month. But he has been moving quickly to get his hands around the situation at Infiniti.

The maker hasn’t said why it decided to oust Bartsch and replace him with Parker – who had been heading the Western Region for Nissan until now. But a look at the sales numbers may give a hint.

(For more on plans for Infiniti’s Eau Rouge, Click Here.)

On the positive side, Infiniti saw its global sales jump 13.5%, to a record 186,200 last year. But in the U.S., sales increased by a mere 0.8%, well behind the overall pace of the market’s recovery, to 117,330. And December’s numbers actually slid 9.3%.

A variety of factors came to play, but that apparently didn’t help Bartsch make his case to his new boss.

Kruger will have a lot of other things on his plate in the months to come. Among other things, he will have to decide what to do with the Eau Rouge project. Insiders say that name might go away, though they also stress that the brand’s commitment to launching new performance models will continue.

(New Infiniti Q60 could deliver 400 horsepower. Click Here for the story.)