AutoNation picks auto industry outsider to replace Jackson as CEO

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — AutoNation Inc. has tapped an auto industry outsider, Carl Liebert, to replace CEO Mike Jackson and give the largest U.S. dealership group its first new leader in two decades.

For the past five years, Liebert, 53, has been COO of USAA, a financial services company serving nearly 13 million U.S. military members and their families. Earlier in his career, he had stints at retail giants Circuit City and Home Depot as well as General Electric.

Friday's announcement caps a search set off last September when Jackson, now 70, said he would step down sometime this year. Liebert will become AutoNation's president and CEO and a board member on March 11, when Jackson transitions to executive chairman.

In recent months, the company has seen additional executive churn.

In December, Michael Larson, the lead independent director who was in charge of the effort to find a replacement for Jackson, abruptly stepped down. And an early January announcement of a $50 million restructuring plan accompanied word of four executive exits, including COO Lance Iserman.

Days later, AutoNation said the new CEO would come from outside the company.

The restructuring initiative also consolidated AutoNation's three regions into two, and cut corporate and regional jobs. The moves were made, AutoNation said, with an eye towards a "challenging 2019" for auto retailers.

That forecast was reinforced Friday when AutoNation reported a decline in fourth-quarter revenue. Net income was down, too, largely because of restructuring costs.

AutoNation says the restructuring will position the company to further invest in its brand-extension strategy, designed to keep the company profitable amid tightening new-vehicle margins. Those extensions include AutoNation auctions, standalone used-vehicle stores and collision centers, as well as branded finance-and-insurance products, parts and accessories.

As executive chairman, Jackson will lead AutoNation's board of directors. He will also serve as a resource to Liebert as he meets industry leaders and learns the auto retail world. Jackson has long been a prominent voice in the industry, often speaking on behalf of the dealer community on issues such as automakers' stair-step incentive programs, overproduction and narrowing new-vehicle margins.

Liebert "brings multi-faceted expertise in leading customer-centric transformations, omnichannel digital capabilities, and supply chain logistics to AutoNation," Jackson said in a statement. "His work in improving store operations has become a model that many companies have emulated."

At USAA, Liebert oversaw business strategy and an omnichannel customer experience. He also led the company’s property and casualty insurance division, Federal Savings Bank, and investment and real estate companies. 

Through 2006, Liebert was also executive vice president of stores for The Home Depot Inc., overseeing international sales, strategy, execution and operations for the more than 2,000 outlets. From there, he went to 24 Hour Fitness, where he was president and CEO.

Earlier in his career he was a manager at General Electric before moving to the since-liquidated Circuit City electronics retailer.

AutoNation and "what it can be, what it already is, especially in this industry, is exciting," Liebert told Automotive News. "I look at this brand and say it has all that potential bottled up to go do it and an incredible amount of talent throughout. I'm thankful that we're at this point. But I'm also very, very humbled to be taking something that [Jackson] built for the last 20 years and taking it to the next level."

Liebert is a former U.S. Navy Officer, with an undergraduate degree from the U.S. Naval Academy. He has an MBA from Vanderbilt University's Owen Graduate School of Management.

Along with the CEO announcement, AutoNation reported a sharp decline in fourth-quarter net income, largely tied to $9 million in charges related to the $50 million restructuring plan.

Net income fell 39 percent to $92.7 million. AutoNation expects additional but less-significant costs in the first quarter.

Fourth-quarter revenue fell 4.8 percent to $5.4 billion.

AutoNation, of Fort Lauderdale, ranks No. 1 on Automotive News' list of the top 150 dealership groups based in the U.S., with retail sales of 329,116 new vehicles in 2017.