After 16 years at Nissan's helm, Carlos Ghosn is handing the reins over to co-chief executive officer Hiroto Saikawa, who will assume the role of president and CEO later this year. Ghosn will remain chairman of the Nissan-Renault Alliance as well as CEO of Renault SA, but will be focused on turning around the struggling Mitsubishi Motors Corp. Nissan took a controlling stake in last year.

"I am confident that the management team I have developed at Nissan over the past 18 years has the talent and experience to meet the company's operational and strategic goals," Ghosn said in a statement. "Having recently taken on new responsibilities at Mitsubishi Motors, and taking into consideration the upcoming Nissan general shareholders meeting, I have decided that the time is right for Hiroto Saikawa to succeed me as Nissan's CEO."

Saikawa will assume the duties of CEO on April 1, 2017, Nissan announced Wednesday. Ghosn will seek to renew his role as chairman of Nissan's board of directors at the next shareholder meeting in June. He was named chairman of Mitsubishi in October following a deal that saw Nissan take a 34-percent stake in the 100-year-old Japanese automaker. Mitsubishi is still struggling to pull itself out of a global sales rut not helped by a fuel economy scandal in its home market of Japan. The automaker will unveil a new production crossover called the Eclipse Cross at the Geneva show next month.

Saikawa joined Nissan in 1977, and has served in senior management positions since 1999. He was named co-CEO in October 2016, and prior to that was Nissan's Chief Competitive Officer. Between 2006 and 2016, Saikawa was a member of the board of directors for Renault. Ghosn had said previously he wanted a Japanese national to succeed him. He was ranked 18 out of 50 on our 2017 Power List.