O’Reilly Automotive, Inc. announced that Greg Johnson, CEO, has informed the company’s Board of Directors that he will retire, effective January 31, 2024. The Board has selected Brad Beckham, the company’s co-president, to succeed Johnson as CEO. The Board also determined that Brent Kirby, the company’s co-president, will be promoted to president upon Johnson’s retirement.
“On behalf of the board, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Greg for his 41 years of dedicated service to O’Reilly and, most importantly, for his outstanding leadership as CEO during a truly momentous phase of our company’s history. Greg has mentored and developed a strong executive leadership team who led the company through a period of unprecedented growth, driving record profitability,” said Executive Chairman of the Board Greg Henslee. “Greg is extremely passionate about and committed to perpetuating the O’Reilly culture and is relentlessly focused on driving excellent customer service in all aspects of our business. Above all, 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.”
“It has been such a privilege to play a part in O’Reilly’s incredible growth story,” said Johnson. “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. It has truly been an honor to work with this unbelievably talented team. 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.”
“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,” said Beckham, who will become only the fourth CEO in O’Reilly’s history.
Beckham, 44, has been an O’Reilly team member since 1996. his O’Reilly career began as a parts specialist and progressed through the roles of store manager, district manager, regional manager, divisional vice president, vice president of Eastern store operations and sales and progressed to executive vice president of store operations and sales, and executive vice president and COO. Beckham has held the position of co-president since January
2023.
Kirby, 55, has been an O’Reilly team member since 2018. He began his 35-year retail career with Lowe’s
Companies, Inc. (“Lowe’s”) as a hardware associate and progressed through various positions at the store, district, and regional levels before being promoted to senior vice president of store operations and later chief omnichannel officer. Prior to joining O’Reilly, Kirby was chief supply chain officer for Lowe’s. In 2018, his O’Reilly career began as senior vice president of omnichannel and progressed through the roles of executive vice president of supply chain and executive vice president and chief supply Chain officer. He has held the position of co-president since January of 2023.
