PEOPLE : American to Head Nissan’s Marketing Operations in U.S. : Autos: The Japanese firm says the appointment is part of its strategy to be a ‘fully localized, customer-oriented company.’

Nissan on Monday named an American to head its U.S. sales and marketing operations--a first among major Japanese auto makers, company officials contended.

Thomas D. Mignanelli will become president and chief executive of Nissan Motor Corp. in U.S.A. on July 1, replacing Kazutoshi Hagiwara, who will return to the Tokyo-based parent company, Nissan Motor Co.

Many U.S. executives working for Japanese corporations have complained that they are given little authority or opportunity for advancement. But analysts say Japanese companies eventually will come to rely more on U.S. employees to be able to respond more quickly to the changeable tastes of U.S. consumers.

“Mr. Mignanelli’s appointment is in keeping with our strategy to become a fully localized, customer-oriented company in America,” said Yoshikazu Hanawa, president of Nissan North America, a Los Angeles-based subsidiary that coordinates all of the car maker’s U.S. operations.

The 45-year-old Mignanelli, who came to Nissan three years ago after an 18-year stint with Ford Motor Co., will oversee the marketing and sales of all Nissan and Infiniti automobiles and trucks in the United States. Mignanelli, who is now executive vice president of operations, will report to Hanawa, who visits Los Angeles frequently but is based in Japan.

“This is one of the most Americanized Japanese companies,” Mignanelli said in an interview.

“Everybody says in Japanese companies you don’t progress, you don’t do this, you don’t do that,” he said. “Well, I’m sitting here feeling pretty good about progression in the last three years.”

In response to earlier reports that American employees at Nissan were monitored by Japanese executives who provided the sole link with Tokyo, Mignanelli said Monday, “I don’t have to clear my phone calls to Japan.”

An American also heads Nissan’s other large U.S. subsidiary, Nissan Motor Manufacturing Corp. in Smyrna, Tenn. A British native is president of the Japanese firm’s manufacturing subsidiary in Britain, and an Australian heads the Nissan subsidiary there.

“Having worked with Japanese car companies for 23 years . . . I think it is a major step on their part to give (Mignanelli) this responsibility,” said J. Dave Power, president of J. D. Power Associates, an Agoura Hills automotive consulting firm.

Analyst Mike Kobayashi of Paine Webber, the New York brokerage, said Nissan needs “a guy who can read the market very well, very quickly.”

However, he added, “I think it would be an illusion to think that a U.S. guy would run all of Nissan’s U.S. operations. It’s still a subsidiary of a Japanese corporation . . . so it’s logical for it to be run by a Japanese.”

A University of Michigan survey of U.S. managers at Japanese corporations last year found that many are excluded from decision-making inside their firms and have trouble advancing.

But Vladimir Pucik, an associate business professor who co-wrote the study, said the problem is one of know-how on the part of Japanese firms.

“There is not a conspiracy to keep Americans out,” said Pucik, who is on a research leave in Japan. “They do promote them to positions of responsibility, but there is a dilemma of how to integrate the two operations (in Japan and the United States). That’s more difficult than finding capable Americans and promoting them.”

“I think Nissan shows a lot of courage by being able to take the risk,” he said.

A much smaller Japanese car maker, American Isuzu Motors, recently appointed an American to the position of chairman.