This month carried the surprise news that Andrew Palmer, chief planning officer and deputy of Carlos Ghosn at Nissan-Renault alliance has jumped ship to join Aston Martin as its new CEO. Palmer was tipped to succeed Ghosn at leading Nissan. This can only be good news for Aston Martin; Palmer has strong contacts with Daimler Benz which has a stake in Aston Martin. He is also a capable leader who can transform the loss-making company into a secure future.

Industry sources allude to a friction at Nissan between the two strong leaders when Ghosn passed on suggestion by Palmer to take a stake in Aston Martin, which is one the few remaining niche companies without a major automotive group behind it. This may have led to Palmer’s decision to change companies.

Aston Martin recently sold 37.5 percent stake to an Italian fund called Investindustrial in May 2013. The company needed the funds to finance new models at a cost of $823 million over the next five years. As Palmer was in charge of the luxury Infiniti brand with the Nissan group, he fronted closer cooperation with Daimler, which has a four percent stake in Aston Martin. Cooperation between Aston Martin and Daimler is likely to flourish under Palmer. Daimler is considering a plan to build an Aston Martin SUV on Mercedes architecture.

While palmer’s move is good news to Aston Martin, it certainly raises concern at Nissan–Renault which saw an exodus of talented managers to other companies recently. This exodus began last year with Renault second-in-command Carlos Tavares. Like Palmer, Tavares was seen as a potential future leader and now heads French rival PSA/Peugeot-Citroen. Infiniti has lost its CEO Johan de Nysschen, who left in July for rival Cadillac.

Of Nissan's nine executive vice presidents, Palmer had arguably the biggest portfolio and wielded the widest influence. He signed off on all things related to product planning, marketing, sales, zero-emission vehicles and the Infiniti luxury brand.

He said in an interview last year about his chances of rising further at Nissan: “At some point, there's no room on the ladder." No wonder he jumped to the top of another ladder!

—

Adel Murad is a senior motoring and business journalist, based in London.

Email: [email protected]