JM Family Enterprises Inc., the $15.1 billion diversified automotive concern, has named Brent Burns, 58, as its new CEO, effective July 1.
Current CEO Colin Brown, 69, will retain his title of chairman.
Burns was CFO of the company in 2008-14 and served as president of financial services subsidiary World Omni Financial Corp. for seven years. He became COO of JM Family Enterprises in 2014 and president in 2017.
Brown climbed the ranks at the Deerfield Beach, Fla., company starting in 1997, when he was brought on as vice president and general counsel. In January 2003, he became the first president and then CEO outside founder Jim Moran's family. Last year, he was appointed chairman.
While Brown led JM Family Enterprises, the company navigated the U.S. economic downturn in 2008 and overcame Toyota's unintended-acceleration recall controversy. The company posted record first-quarter results across all of its business units, it said in a statement Monday.
JM Family Enterprises' primary business units include Southeast Toyota Distributors, the world's largest independent distributor of Toyota vehicles; JM&A Group, one of the leading independent providers finance and insurance products in the automotive industry; World Omni Financial Corp. and JM Lexus, a dealership in Margate, Fla.
Southeast Toyota Distributors supplies vehicles, parts and accessories to 177 franchised dealerships in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. Those dealerships sell 20 percent of all Toyotas -- retail and fleet -- in the U.S.
JM Family has major U.S. operations in Jacksonville and Margate, Fla.; Commerce and Alpharetta, Ga.; Mobile, Ala.; and St. Louis.
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