Mitsubishi Motors Exec Expected to Step Down

Richard Recchia, the outspoken auto executive who established Mitsubishi Motors in the United States 16 years ago, is expected to step down this week as chief operating officer of the company’s Mitsubishi Motor Sales of America Inc. import and distribution arm.

Officials at Mitsubishi headquarters in Cypress would not comment except to say that an announcement of management changes is expected to be made Thursday.

But it is no secret that Recchia, 58, has been grooming a successor for nearly a year.

Industry consultant George Peterson, of AutoPacific Group in Santa Ana, said Recchia is following an established trend in Japanese companies. “When the successor is ready to move into place, they generally give the ‘gray hair’ a new position of importance, sort of a general manager emeritus post.”

His replacement at Mitsubishi Motor Sales will probably be Pierre Gagnon, 42, who was hired by Recchia in March.

Gagnon, who came from General Motors Corp.’s Saturn division, already has revamped Mitsubishi Motor Sales’ management practices and has instituted an unusual consensus system that demands that decisions be made by unanimous approval .

Recchia became chief spokesman for Asian auto companies in the U.S. in the early 1990s when trade tensions were high and the domestic auto industry was lobbying Congress for import restraints on Japanese cars. He is expected to become liaison between Mitsubishi’s separate sales and manufacturing operations in the U.S.

Recchia and Gagnon were attending the company’s annual dealer meeting in Florida and could not be reached for comment.

But Peterson said that although Gagnon will handle daily operations at Mitsubishi Motor Sales, Recchia “will have a role that is a lot more than advisory. He’ll be very visible.”

Company officials said that Gagnon’s consensus system means that a decision cannot be made if even one member of the management group says no.

“It’s exhausting and can be frustrating, but it results in decisions that everyone supports,” said one company insider.

Recchia’s departure from daily operations at Mitsubishi Motor Sales is part of a series retirements and resignations that have seen longtime American executives leaving the Japanese car companies that they helped run for years.

Last week, Mazda North American Operations announced the resignation of its sales and marketing chief, George McCabe, 56.