Ex-Renault COO Puts Auto Maker, Spy Scandal Behind Him

PARIS – Patrick Pelata, Renault’s chief operating officer until the 2011 false spy scandal, has quit the French auto maker and will take a top job with a California company in September.

Pelata has been developing strategy for the Renault-Nissan Alliance’s connected car of the future and, given California’s reputation, he likely is headed to a software company that would like to have a prominent role in that future.

Pelata was Carlos Ghosn’s No.2 man at Nissan; after Ghosn took over Renault from Louis Schweitzer, he named Pelata COO. Pelata was considered one of the few top executives who could disagree with Ghosn.

But in January 2011, Pelata fell into the company line on three executives who were falsely accused of being spies, and his part in the sad story prompted him to resign. Pelata had interviewed and fired one of the executives, believing the false testimony of an anonymous accuser instead of the loyal Renault officer in front of him.

Two months after resigning as COO in April 2011, Pelata became the strategy advisor to Renault and Nissan for the future of connected cars.

Although he was a rigorous boss, Pelata was well-liked at Renault and by the media, not least for his easy manner and open mind. He was a member of the French Communist Party from 1971 to 1981, a past that may not play well in California, but also a past that demonstrates his concern for others and a willingness to listen and learn.

“Voila,” wrote journalist Christophe Jaussaud in journalauto.com upon learning Pelata was leaving. “One of the last ‘real’ characters at Renault is leaving the ship Aug. 16, but considering the quality of the man and his professionalism, he won’t be inactive very long.”

Pelata told French journalist Florence Lagarde at autoactu.net that he enjoyed developing the connected-car plan for Renault and Nissan, but he wants to implement whatever new strategies he cultivates.

“The subject of connected cars interests me, but I could not do anything operationally,” he says. “Just imagine if Google or Apple proposes tablets adapted to the automobile, more or less well-connected to the car. They could bring sales pitches at the right moment, to the right customer. This is a dangerous model for auto makers. You can’t stop them, but you have to do it better and faster.”

The worlds of video games, music and telephones already have been turned upside-down by Internet connections, and Pelata says houses and cars are the next markets, because cars now amount to a room in the house.

He leaves Renault after 28 years of climbing upward following his graduation from a top engineering university. In California, Pelata will join a company he declines to name, and does not specify his new role, but he told Lagarde it was “pretty risky but exciting.”