Nissan executive steps down

Departure of man who played key role in HQ relocation hasn't been announced, but his successor is inbound

Email | Print By Milt Capps

Goodspeed, left, and Greenberg

NashvillePost.com has learned Nissan North America's chief information officer, a key player in the company's migration from California to Nashville, has left the company.

Nissan headquarters employees confirmed this morning the recent departure of Vice President and CIO Robert Greenberg. A Nissan spokesperson also confirmed the scheduled April 1 arrival of Linda Goodspeed as Greenberg's successor, but could provide no further details.

Goodspeed is currently listed as a managing partner for a Detroit-area firm, WealthStrategies Financial Advisors, a post she apparently accepted just two months ago.

She previously spent six years as executive vice president of Lennox International, the heating and refrigeration company based in Richardson, Texas. Earlier, she was president and chief operating officer for PartMiner Inc., a Colorado-based supply-chain data provider.

Greenberg has spent much of the past two years migrating Nissan corporate systems staff from Gardena, Calif., to Nashville, a chore that has reportedly entailed hiring dozens of new IT staff, due in part to refusal of a majority of former tech employees to relocate. He joined Nissan in 2004, after a career that included stints with Dell, Avaya and Exxon.

Word of Goodspeed's arrival follows last week's Nissan announcement of the apparently self-initiated departure of Senior Vice President for Sales and Marketing Mark McNabb, and the appointment of Brian Carolin, previously with Nissan Europe, as his successor.

Goodspeed, 46, worked at a Nissan research and development facility in the Detroit area for two years in the 1990s, after about six years in supply-chain operations with Ford Motor Co. She was recently nominated for a seat on the board of directors of publicly held American Electric Power Co. She earned her bachelor's in mechanical engineering at Michigan State University and an MBA from the University of Michigan.

Attempts to reach Goodspeed and Greenberg have not yet been successful.