THE return of Jacques Nasser, who is negotiating to buy Jaguar and Land Rover, would bring back one of the most charismatic and enthusiastic characters to the automotive world.

But some would say he was a little too enthusiastic and that this contributed to his abrupt departure as chief executive of Ford five years ago. His exit came after just three years at the helm and a 33-year career at the company.

As head of Ford, Mr Nasser was a whirlwind of expansion. He built up the finance arm, intending to transform Ford from merely a car company to a multi-service organisation. He added on Kwik-Fit, the car repairer, so that Ford was involved in all aspects of car ownership — from raising the cash to having the vehicle mended.

He bought Land Rover from BMW when the German carmaker was splitting up the Rover group. As a self-confessed petrolhead who loves things on four wheels, he was genuinely pleased to buy Land Rover. He had also bought Sweden’s Volvo. Mr Nasser then created the Premier Automotive Group to bring together Ford’s stable of luxury car groups — Jaguar, Land Rover, Volvo and Aston Martin. The idea was to give the brands an overarching identity that denoted quality.

The blending went further as they went on to share parts and platforms, somewhat disastrously for Jaguar when its X-type was heavily criticised for resembling a Mondeo. But the final blow for Mr Nasser came with the Firestone tyre controversy when road accidents involving more than 250 deaths were investigated. The problem of tyre-tread separation mainly affected Explorers.

However Mr Nasser, who was born in Lebanon and grew up in Australia, was a popular executive who did much to increase diversity in the worldwide company. When racism became a big problem at Ford’s Dagenham factory Mr Nasser flew to Britain to tackle the issue.

He is said still to enjoy a good relationship with Bill Ford, great grandson of Henry Ford and the current executive chairman, despite the fact that Mr Ford sacked him, saying that the company had lost focus under his leadership.

Mr Nasser signed a gagging order when he left the business so we may never know more about that relationship nor how well Mr Nasser’s decisions were supported by the board.

He has remained in the US, working as a partner in One Equity, a venture capital group affiliated to JPMorgan Chase, with whom he is now attempting to buy the carmakers he used to run.

In One Equity he has run Polaroid as its chairman after the financial group took over the business. He is a non-executive of BSkyB, the broadcaster in which News Corporation, parent company of The Times, has a 38 per cent stake. He was appointed non-executive director of BHP Billiton this year.

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