A former assistant chief engineer on the Sentra and Quest, Carla Bailo has climbed the engineering ladder to become Senior Vice President, Research & Development, Nissan Americas. The 50-year-old, currently based in Japan as OEM Business Unit Divisional General Manager for Nissan Motor Co., succeeds Motohiro Matsumura, currently President, Nissan Technical Center North America (NTCNA) in Farmington Hills. He will return to Japan for an assignment to be announced. Bailo will be responsible for all of Nissan's vehicle engineering and development operations in Michigan, Arizona, Mexico, and Brazil. She will also retain her current position as a member of Nissan's Management Committee-Americas, the company's highest ranking decision-making body in the Americas region covering the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Brazil, and 37 other Latin American and Caribbean countries.
Carla Bailo joined Nissan from General Motors in 1989 as a vehicle testing engineer at NTCNA. She holds a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from General Motors Institute (now Kettering University) and a master's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan.