CarGene
Kazutoshi Mizuno

Kazutoshi Mizuno

NissanDevelopment lead

Developed the R35 GT-R as "Mr. GT-R", given full authority over GT-R development and sales by company president Carlos Ghosn

Timeline

  1. 1972

    Joined

    Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.

  2. 1989

    NISMOTeam manager and chief engineer for Group C endurance racing

  3. 1993

    Vehicle Development CenterManager, Vehicle Design Section

  4. 1997

    Development lead, FR-L platform

  5. 2000

    Chief of vehicle development (Chief Vehicle Engineer, CVE)

  6. 2001
    Skyline 11th generation (V35)
    Skyline 11th generation (V35)

    2001–2007Development lead

  7. 2003

    GT-R Chief Vehicle Engineer (CVE, head of vehicle development), Chief Product Specialist (CPS, head of product planning) and Program Director (PD, responsible for profit and sales targets)

  8. 2007
    GT-R (R35)
    GT-R (R35)

    2007–2025Development leaduntil Dec. 2013

    Worked with

    A single leader reporting directly to the president

    Nissan intended to build a next-generation GT-R, but the majority view was to build it as an extension of the existing FR-L platform, and Mizuno had declined to be development lead, saying, "That can't be Nissan's flagship." When president Carlos Ghosn gave him full authority, the usual system of three leaders per model gave way to a single-leader system concentrating authority in Mizuno, and it became a project reporting directly to the president. The GT-R adopted the PM platform Mizuno had long envisioned.

  9. 2012

    Left

  10. 2014

    HAITEC (Hua-chuang Automobile Information Technical Center)Executive Vice President

Connections

Kazutoshi Mizuno

Kazutoshi Mizuno

Profile

From Chikuma, Nagano Prefecture. Graduated from National Institute of Technology, Nagano College. Head of development of the Nissan GT-R (R35). Then-president Carlos Ghosn entrusted him, as "Mr. GT-R", with full authority over the car's development and sales, and appointed him chief vehicle engineer (CVE), chief product specialist (CPS) and program director (PD). He was chief vehicle engineer (CVE) of the eleventh-generation Skyline (V35). In the eighties he was involved in Project 901 on the body design side, and on the P10 Primera and the R32 Skyline he was responsible for vehicle packaging design.

Translated from Japanese sources.

Nissan engineers

All Nissan engineers