Nissan Moves Diaz To Trucks Only, Promotes Canadian Chief to Takeover North American Sales
Nissan announced Tuesday that it would move current U.S. chief Fred Diaz to focus on truck sales for North America and promote Nissan’s chief in Canada, Christian Meunier, to lead the group in North America.
“We are now poised to capitalize on the significant investments we have made in our trucks with the launch of the all-new Nissan Titan, and these changes will support our ability to do so,” Nissan North America chairman Jose Munoz said in a statement announcing the changes.
In his new role, Diaz will oversee truck sales — Titan and Frontier — for all of North America to help jumpstart that brand from a minor player to a more serious contender. He was previously head of Ram brand for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles before joining Nissan in 2013.
Christian Meunier
According to a statement announcing the change, Meunier will take over sales, marketing and product planning for Nissan in North America. Meunier helped lead Nissan to record growth in Canada after taking over in 2013. Before taking over in Canada, he was head of Nissan in Brazil.
“Nissan’s business in Canada has improved substantially under Christian’s watch and is delivering consistent performance improvements,” Munoz said in a statement. “We look forward to Christian’s leadership of Nissan Division’s business in the U.S. and Canada.”
Meunier will report to Munoz, according to the statement. Diaz will report to Meunier.
The company also announced that Judy Wheeler, head of sales in the Southeast region for Nissan, would be promoted to head of sales for the U.S.
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"from a minor player to a more serious contender" Mind you, a "more" serious contender doesn't automatically mean "A" serious contender. Toyota wanted to become a serious contender in the full-size game with the Tundra. Turns out expensive commercials with stunts and part-size comparisons didn't do the trick; with under 120K units sold, it's only a bit player. Nissan lacks the quality reputation of Toyota (though whether it deserves to have that rep extended to their trucks is HIGHLY debatable), so they'll have an even tougher time. I will say on the van front I'm seeing more and more NV vans, big and small, by the month, but they're far outnumbered both by older Transit Connects and brand-new full-size Transits.
Diaz keeps getting replaced by Canadians. That coincidence has gotta bruise the ego. 1st he gets booted from Ram for Reid Bigland and now he gets booted from Nissan North America for Christian Meunier. Down the ladder he goes! What next? He gets hired by VW's Ethics Division?