George Leondis, a longtime employee of the company, will become its new chief financial officer on April 1, and hopefully his management, consulting, and accounting experience will help Nissan turn its fortunes around. Leondis succeeds the automaker's current CFO, Jérémie Papin, who will keep working through mid-May to close out the company's 2025 financial reporting and assist Leondis with a smooth transition.
A Long History Of Financial Management
Leondis joined Nissan in 2004 as the Australia-based division's head of finance, and in the intervening 22 years he has held multiple roles leading the accounting departments in several different markets. Since 2024, he has been stationed in Japan, leading mergers and acquisitions, operations, and partnership finances. Upon taking the CFO role on April 1, he will be responsible for carrying out much of the company's "Re:Nissan" strategy to improve profitability and stability at the company.
The new CFO should be well positioned for such a task. Before he was at Nissan, Leondis worked at management and accounting consulting firm PwC for 10 years, and his training as a chartered accountant required him to include more than mere bookkeeping in his tool chest. In addition to monitoring cashflow and taxes, chartered accountants often advise their clients on investing, business practices, and auditing – a far-reaching certification that shows that Leondis has lots of skills to draw from in his new role.
How Is Nissan Doing Lately?
The Japanese company, which has been suffering from a lack of profitability and stagnating auto sales, has shown some signs of life. The Re:Nissan plan included cutting $1.6 billion in fixed costs – things like full-time employee salaries, rent and financing on factory and office space, and expected asset depreciation. As of February, the company is ahead of schedule in that particular goal, which will unfortunately include the layoffs of 20,000 employees worldwide. Still, the plan allowed Nissan to post a profit in both Q2 and Q3 of the 2025 financial year.
Nissan is also closing seven of its manufacturing facilities (and two of its design studios), including offloading its factory in South Africa to Chinese automaker Chery, while corporate partner Renault bought out Nissan's 51-percent stake at the plant in Chennai, India. The goal will be to ensure the remaining 10 factories will run at full capacity rather than idle in the moments when demand for Nissan products wanes.
Despite the ambitious cost-cutting, the company is expected to lose around $1.8 billion on a projected revenue of $76 billion for the 2025 fiscal year, which ends March 31. That means Leondis will have to hit the ground running if he wants his tenure to be marked by eventual profitability. That will likely involve further cost-cutting, including cheaper model development, longer vehicle life cycles, and perhaps more layoffs.
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