Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
AutoNation CEO is stepping aside
Jackson, longtime leader of auto retailer, heading to new role.
Mike Jackson is driving himself into a new role at AutoNation.
Jackson, who is CEO and chairman of the nation’s largest auto retailer, on Wednesday announced a planned transition to executive chairman in 2019. He said the board of directors is launching a search for a new CEO and president to take over next year.
“I’m going to be 70 years old [in February] and I’ve been CEO for 20 years,” Jackson said. “The company is in great shape. It’s a good time for me to hand over the baton.”
The Fort Lauderdalebased auto retailer also announced AutoNation’s board has extended Jackson’s contract as chairman through 2021. Jackson said his new role will be to “support the new CEO in every way that’s constructive to success.”
AutoNation doesn’t have an obvious successor. In 2017, Jackson added the title of president, when William Berman resigned after only three months in the position. Berman also had been a 20-year executive at AutoNation and chief operating officer since 2015.
Jackson said he never named a new president because he was already talking with his mentor and AutoNation founder, H. Wayne Huizenga, about making the transition to executive chairman. Huizenga hired Jackson in 1999. Fort Lauderdale’s most well-known entrepreneur died March 22 at age 80.
“Wayne taught me life is a series of chapters that need to be thought about and acted on. I took that to heart,” he said.
Jackson said both internal and external candidates will be considered for the leadership position. Executive search firm Spencer Stuart has been hired to help AutoNation’s board with the process, the company said in a news release.
“He or she needs to be an outstanding individual and business leader,” said Jackson, who says he will remain as CEO until the new executive is selected.
AutoNation has 700 employees in Fort Lauderdale and 28,000 in total across the country.
Under Jackson, AutoNation said it has sold more than 11 million vehicles and raised nearly $15 million dollars for cancer-related charities. Jackson diversified the type of cars sold at AutoNation retailers and expanded the retailer’s reach across the country. AutoNation shareholder return has increased by more than three times over and earnings per share more than 570 percent since Jackson took the reins in 1999, said spokesman Marc Cannon.
In 2017, AutoNation revenue was flat — $21.5 billion, compared with $21.6 billion in 2016. However, profits rose 6 percent.
Jackson said he laid the foundation in 2016 for the company’s current focus on used car sales and service, opening new stores and repair shops. He also introduced the no-haggle, “one price” concept to AutoNation stores.
“The outlook is pretty good for the industry in 2019,” said Jackson in a Wednesday appearance on CNBC-TV’s “Squawk Box.”
But he has warned that tariffs could drive prices up “dramatically.” Jackson told Bloomberg on Wednesday that the auto industry is “freaked out” about tariffs on automobiles. He said a new trade agreement without Canada is “unthinkable.”
In recent years, Jackson has taken on more outside responsibilities, including his role as chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank in Atlanta in January and cochair of a homeless initiative in Broward County.
In April, Jackson was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame.
Investors didn’t flinch Wednesday at the prospect of a new CEO, perhaps because Jackson will be overseeing the company as executive chairman. AutoNation’s stock closed at $43.91, up 82 cents or 1.91 percent on the New York Stock Exchange.