Knight Commander of the British Empire Carlos Ghosn is a Brazilian-French-Lebanese entrepreneur. He is the current CEO and president of Renault of France and Nissan of Japan. Carlos Ghosn is mainly recognized for the transformation of Nissan. As an outsider in charge of one of Japan’s largest companies, he has been extremely successful. He was voted Man of the Year 2003 by Fortune Magazine’s Asian edition.

Born on March 9, 1954 in Porto Velho, Brazil, Carlos Ghosn grew up with his Lebanese parents. At age 6, he moved to Beirut, Lebanon, with his mother. He completed his secondary education in a Jesuit school in Lebanon. Then he finished his classes’ préparatoires at Lycée Stanislas in Paris. He graduated from Ecole Polytechnique with degrees in engineering in 1978.

Prior to Nissan, he was the chairperson and chief executive officer of Michelin North America. He supervised over the restructuring of the company after its acquisition of the Uniroyal Goodrich Tire Company in 1990. Previously, Carlos Ghosn served as the COO of Michelin’s South American activities based in Brazil; as head of research and development for industrial tires in Ladoux, France; and as plant manager in France.

Carlos Ghosn joined Nissan as its chief operating officer in June 1999, became its president in June of 2000 and was named chief executive officer in June 2001. Aside from these usual responsibilities, Carlos Ghosn likewise served in the auditing committee of Mirant’s board.

In October 2006, Carlos Ghosn was named Knight Commander of the British Empire. He is married with four children and is multilingual; he speaks 4 languages fluently. Carlos Ghosn’s life story was published in a Japanese comic book series called The True Story of Carlos Ghosn. Serialized in 2002, the story had seven chapters and was later made into a separate book.