What's the succession plan at AutoNation?

AutoNation Inc. COO Bill Berman's abrupt resignation last week, less than four months after he also was named president, is the latest in a series of executive exits from the largest U.S. dealership group.

At least 20 high-level staff members with decades of experience have left AutoNation since January 2014, and at least 17 since early 2015.

Some ex-AutoNation leaders retired, some left the industry and some went on to influential posts at other companies. But they all left, which raises the question: Where do their departures leave AutoNation? In particular, who remains in line to succeed 68-year-old CEO Mike Jackson?

Jackson, who has led the company since 1999, said shortly before turning 65 in 2013 that he planned to stay with the company indefinitely, even asserting that he wanted to work as long as Penske Automotive Group Inc. CEO Roger Penske: "Whatever Roger's in for, I'm in for." Penske is now 80. In January 2015, Jackson signed a contract that extended his employment with AutoNation until at least 2019.

"We have a very robust, professional succession plan in process," Jackson told Automotive News, which the board and he work on "together." 

Jackson declined to say whether Berman's successor would be promoted from within or come from outside the company. "We have a very talented, experienced team" of senior executives, he said, citing a list of his top 10 lieutenants. "I think the average is 16 years with AutoNation. I'd match that with anybody." 

Marc Cannon, AutoNation's chief marketing officer, said 17 high-level staffers departing over two and a half years is not unusual. He said 15 staff members at similar management levels left the company from late 2012 until 2015, but he declined to identify them. 

Many of the managers who left AutoNation were longtime operational leaders, regional presidents and market presidents overseeing scores of the company's dealerships. Several had long-term ties to former COO Mike Maroone and his family's dealership group, which was acquired by AutoNation as one of the retailer's early building blocks in the late 1990s. Maroone, who preceded Berman as president and COO for 15 years, retired in 2015 at age 61.

Berman had been president of the company's western region and AutoNation's Northern California market and a general manager before becoming COO and president. When Berman was named COO in 2015, Cannon said the company had been grooming him for the position, with mentorship from Maroone, ever since Maroone had signed his previous contract in 2013. "It was all Mike Maroone's decision on when he wanted to leave and when he determined Berman was ready" to take over, Cannon said at the time.

The succession plan for Berman's post -- and Jackson's -- has not been made public, although the company addressed one part of Berman's portfolio.

When AutoNation gave COO Berman, then 50, the president's title in February, the company said he was the "engineer on all of AutoNation's brand extension strategy, implementation and expansion." After his resignation, Scott Arnold, who was previously vice president of customer care operations, was promoted to executive vice president of customer care and brand extension. That brand-extension strategy will put the AutoNation name on used-only stores and aftermarket parts, among other additions. 

Cannon did not give a reason for Berman's resignation but said that Jackson is "hard at work on the selection process." 

Cannon, without commenting specifically on succession plans, said AutoNation's bench is strong. He pointed to three regional presidents as well as Arnold; Coleman Edmunds, executive vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary; Cheryl Miller, CFO; Donna Parlapiano, executive vice president, franchise operations, mergers & acquisitions and corporate real estate; Tom Conophy, executive vice president and chief technology officer; and himself.

In 2012, AutoNation touted a trio of executives -- Alan McLaren, a 2012 hire from Mercedes-Benz USA; Dave Koehler, hired from Sonic Automotive Inc. and promoted to the company's top sales job in 2011; and Greg Revelle, a 2012 hire from Expedia Inc. -- as leading the company's digital efforts and representing, potentially, its next generation of leaders.

But that didn't pan out. Revelle left in 2014, and McLaren followed in 2015. Koehler was demoted to a general manager position in late 2012 and is now a market president for the company in the Tampa, Fla., area.

Five executives left the company in 2015, the same year as Maroone: Michael Stephan, vice president, corporate controller and tax and principal accounting officer; McLaren, senior vice president of customer care; Julie Staub, vice president of human resources; Audrey Ring, vice president of internal communications; and Ron Frey, chief strategy officer. Several regional and market presidents also departed the company in 2015.

Add it all up, and in the past two and a half years, AutoNation has lost two presidents and COOs, a human resources leader, a chief strategy officer, a chief information officer, a corporate controller and accounting officer, a senior vice president of customer care, its long-term general counsel and architect of its dealership acquisition activities, and at least seven regional and market presidents.

Of the five executive officers listed in AutoNation's 2014 annual report, three have left, while just Jackson and Miller are still there. That's a slightly higher departure rate than at the retailer's peers.

Of the five executive officers at other publicly traded dealership groups in 2014, proxies show that none have left Sonic Automotive, two have left Asbury Automotive Group Inc., and both Group 1 Automotive Inc. and Lithia Motors Inc. have seen one depart. Two of the six executive officers named in Penske Automotive Group's 2014 proxy have left.

Vince Bond Jr. contributed to this report.