NASHVILLE, Tenn. -

After spending more than two decades at Chrysler Group, Fred Diaz left the domestic automaker for an executive role with a Japanese OEM.

Late last week, Nissan announced that Diaz has been named to the newly formed position of divisional vice president of Nissan sales and marketing in the U.S. Diaz will be reporting to José Muñoz, senior vice president of sales and marketing, customer quality and dealer network development for Nissan Americas.

Most recently, Diaz was president and chief executive officer for Ram Truck Brand as well as president and chief executive officer of Chrysler de Mexico.

In this new leadership role, Nissan highlighted that Diaz will assume full responsibility for the day-to-day operations of the Nissan division in the United States, including all sales, marketing, fixed operations, parts and service and administration functions. He will lead the Nissan division team with the marketing, light commercial vehicle and fleet, parts and service and regional operations functions reporting directly to him.

“Fred Diaz is one of the most experienced, results-driven sales and marketing executives in our industry, and we are privileged to welcome him to Nissan,” Muñoz said. “As Nissan division continues to grow in the United States, we expect Fred to convey a fresh perspective to our dealers and the entire divisional operations team that he will now lead.”

Previously, Diaz was Chrysler’s chief executive in charge of the Ram Truck Brand, a position to which he was named in October 2009. In 2011, Diaz was appointed as the chief executive of Chrysler’s Mexican operations where he was the corporate representative responsible for all of the company’s business brands in Mexico, including Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, Ram and Mitsubishi.

During his 24-year career at Chrysler, Diaz progressed through a series of sales company roles beginning as a trainee and zone manager through to the head of national sales and, ultimately, CEO of Ram. Nissan highlighted Diaz has extensive automotive experience across the sales, field operations, distribution, service and marketing arenas.

“Diaz is a respected executive in the automotive industry who has overseen a period of tremendous growth at the Ram brand,” Nissan officials said, referencing that in addition to Ram’s 17-percent sales increase in 2012, Diaz was instrumental in leading the brand to win the 2013 North American Truck of the Year award for the new Ram 1500 pickup truck.

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