Susan Brennan
Susan Brennan is vice president of manufacturing for Nissan North America, Inc. (NNA), and is responsible for the operation of Nissan’s Smyrna, Tennessee plant. She is the senior executive on-site responsible for safety, quality, operations, productivity, environmental compliance, and new model introduction of Nissan’s key North American products, including the Maxima, Altima and Altima Hybrid, as well as the Pathfinder, Frontier, Xterra and Suzuki Equator lines. Brennan is equally responsible for the all-electric Nissan LEAF (coming in 2012) and the Nissan Rogue (expected in 2013). Before joining Nissan in 2008, Brennan spent 20 years in a variety of manufacturing management roles, initially with Douglas & Lomason Co., followed by a move to Ford Motor Co. During her 13 years at Ford, she served in several plant manager positions before being named director of manufacturing in 2000, director of the manufacturing business office in 2006, and, most recently, director for the automaker’s global manufacturing business office. In 2005 and 2010, she was named by Automotive News as one of the Top 100 Leading Women in the North American Auto Industry. She spent five years as a chemical and biological researcher and conducted a breast-cancer epidemiological study at M.D. Anderson Hospital in Houston. She was also a pharmaceutical researcher for Hoechst-Celanese in Corpus Christi, Texas. Brennan is president and a founding member of the Southern Automotive Women’s Form (SAWF), a nonprofit professional organization dedicated to promoting the personal and professional advancement of women in the automotive industry who are located in the Southern Region of the United States. She is a former vice president of Automotive Women’s Alliance, a resource group formed to support women in the automotive industry. Additionally, she has served on the board of directors of the Clara B. Ford Academy in Dearborn, Michigan. Brennan holds a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Nebraska, and has received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Nebraska, College of Business Administration. She also holds a bachelor of science degree in microbiology from the University of Illinois. She resides in Brentwood, Tennessee, with her husband and two children.