O’Reilly Automotive, Inc. will have a new president and CEO Greg Johnson retires on Jan. 31, 2024. The O’Reilly Board of Directors selected co-president Brad Beckham to ascend to the position of CEO, and the company’s co-president Brent Kirby will be promoted to president when Johnson retires.
“Greg has been a champion for O’Reilly’s promote-from-within philosophy and our dedication to long-term succession planning, and he has done an exemplary job preparing both Brad Beckham and Brent Kirby for their new roles,” Executive Chairman of the Board Greg Henslee said in a press release.
As Johnson prepares to leave O’Reilly, he reflects on his past years at the company and on the promotions of Beckham and Kirby.
“Without any doubt, our success and achievements have been driven by our dedicated team members who live our culture values each day and consistently provide the highest level of service in our industry, and it has truly been an honor to work with this unbelievably talented team,” Johnson said in a press release. “During my tenure as CEO, Brad and Brent have both been critical members of the O’Reilly leadership team and their significant knowledge, combined with that of our entire experienced executive management team, positions the company well to continue our record of 30 consecutive years of comparable store sales and operating income growth.”
Beckham, 44, will be only the fourth CEO in the company’s history. He began his career as a parts specialist in 1996 and worked his way up through the years in various leadership positions, eventually holding the position of co-president in January 2023.
“It is such an incredible honor to be chosen as the next CEO of our great company. I am extremely humbled at the tremendous privilege it is to represent our over 88,000 dedicated and hardworking team members,” Beckham said in a press release.
Kirby, 55, began at O’Reilly in 2018 as a senior vice president of omnichannel, but started his 35-year retail career at Lowe’s as a hardware associate. He progressed through the ranks before holding the position of senior vice president of store operations and then later being promoted to chief omnichannel officer. Kirby has been a co-President at O’Reilly since January 2023.
Henslee explains the company is prepared for a transition in leadership and the board expects that O’Reilly will “continue to generate long-term value for our shareholders.”
In a second quarter earnings call with stock shareholders, O’Reilly executives reported the auto parts chain has opened 100 new retail stores in 2023, with a goal to reach 180 new store openings by the end of the year. O’Reilly has done $7.78 billion in gross sales in 2023.
