Lotus fires CEO Dany Bahar following investigation | CarAdvice

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Lotus fires CEO Dany Bahar following investigation

By David Zalstein |
FIND DEALS

Lotus has confirmed the immediate termination of Dany Bahar from his position as Lotus Group Chief Executive Officer in response to an investigation.

A statement from Lotus says, “The decision was made by the Board of Group Lotus plc following the results of an investigation into a complaint made against him by the company’s penultimate holding company, DRB-HICOM Berhad.”

Bahar’s dismissal follows his May 2012 suspension related to the in-house investigation, suggested by The Telegraph to relate to the claiming of expenses.

After joining Lotus from Ferrari in 2009, Bahar was instrumental in seeing the Lotus name back into the pinnacle of motorsport, Formula One, and pushed the brand’s expansion with a five-model plan that included a new Lotus Elan (pictured below), Lotus Elise and Lotus Esprit.

Bahar told CarAdvice in September 2011 that his original plan to launch five new cars had been altered to four as a result of delays associated with the Lotus Elan.

Lotus will be hoping the firing of Bahar brings to a close a string of difficulties the brand has endured in recent times. In early April with financial woes becoming a growing concern, Group Lotus terminated its sponsorship agreement with the Lotus F1 team – the team continues to race on despite the branding irony – publically highlighting the brand’s monetary issues.

Less than a week later Lotus involved itself in what became one of the worst public relations episodes seen when a statement was posted on its Lotus Cars Facebook page that was intended to defend the brand against negative news in regards to poor fiscal and managerial management but degenerated into a personal attack against specific members of the media. Bahar’s suspension followed just a month later.

At the same time as announcing Bahar’s exit, Lotus appointed 51-year-old Aslam Farikullah as the company’s Chief Operating Officer effective immediately.

With hesitation abounding relating to the marque’s survival, DRB-HICOM Berhad (part owners of Lotus along with Proton) Group Managing Director and Chairman of Lotus, Dato’ Sri Haji Mohd Khamil Jamil, said: “I would like to assure you that we remain committed to ensure the ongoing and future business operations of the Lotus Group as we take the Lotus Group to the next level to remain relevant in the global automotive industry. I look forward to bringing mutual benefits to not only DRB-HICOM and PROTON Holdings Berhad but also the Lotus Group and its employees as well as contribute to the growth of the British automotive industry.”

Watch this space.


 

  • PoisonEagle

    What a shame . He was a true visionary, would love to have seen those cars come to fruition. If only he waited until after he’d succeeded to spend/live like a plurocrat…

  • pixxxels

    Bahar may have been a bit of a douche, but at least he had ambition and a true vision for the future of the brand. It wasn’t unimaginable to think that one day, Lotus under Bahar could be truly seen as a real challenger to the current supercar status-quo. Before him, Lotus was floundering around and slowly fading into irrelevance. I hope they see that what Bahar was trying to do is the only viable option if they want to survive, and not return to the bad old days’ mindset. 

    • sam

      No, bahar WAS a douche

      He didn’t have the faintest clue about what it took to run a performance company, especially a company like lotus. He had no engineering acumen to his name (colin chapman would be turning in his grave) and his proposed product lineup was complete vapourware and strayed from what lotus does best.

      More to that, “lifestyle” merchandising, having rappers (swizz beats) as the face of your brand and making $200k+ cars is not what lotus is about. He then had the bravado to declare the next lotus esprit would not only compete with the 911 but beat it. Seriously, dont even try to name the amount of cars that have tried and failed to be a serious 911 competitor. 

      Having a 7 car product lineup was ridiculous and in an economic evironment that the UK and europe is in at the moment, complete suicide. 

      Hopefully now hes gone lotus can get back to doing what it does best, small, lightweight agile perfect sports cars.  

  • jakhammer

    watch them slide back into irrelevance again, looks like he’s done the hard yards only to be replace by one of the boys

  • MM

    Dany Bahar
    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    Dany Taner Bahar (born Taner Bahar 1971 in Istanbul, Turkey.[1]) was the Chief Executive Officer of Group Lotus Plc having joined in September 2009. Prior to joining Lotus, Bahar was employed at Ferrari S.p.A..[2][3]

  • Noddy

    As my Greek uncle used to say, ‘”Never trust a Turk”.

    • Supercharger

      If you have Greeks in the country, they will plunder the country.
      If you have Greeks in the organisation, they will plunder the organisation.

  • Smart US

    maybe he was not very optimistic about the company future… and who needs a smart a$$ when you trying to kick a$$

  • Lewes

    Yes, Lotus should actually build the next Elise (fun sports cars) not supercars?