How Brockman rose to power in auto retailing

Bob Brockman was a self-taught computer programmer who started a company in his Houston living room. Three decades later, he was running one of the largest U.S. dealership management system providers.

Brockman now stands accused in what federal prosecutors are calling the largest tax fraud case against an individual in history.

The CEO of DMS giant Reynolds and Reynolds Co. was indicted this month on 39 federal counts of tax evasion, money laundering, evidence destruction and other financial charges. He pleaded not guilty last week by videoconference from Houston. His attorney, Kathryn Keneally of Jones Day law firm in New York, told Automotive News his lawyers "look forward to defending him against these charges."

Brockman, 79, has rarely granted interviews and has preferred to stay behind the scenes even as the company he built, Universal Computer Systems Inc., merged with Reynolds in 2006.

He told Automotive News in 2007 that Finbarr O'Neill, who had been Reynolds' CEO before the merger and was at the time its vice chairman, would take on the public-facing role.

"He knows lots of people in the industry, many more than I do," Brockman said at the time. "He's got a great reputation out there of being a real straight shooter. He's been the voice of Reynolds to the customers the last couple of years. That's his strength. My strength is in product development. If you think about it from a specialization standpoint, that means I'm more of an inside guy, whereas he's more of an outside guy."

Brockman holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Florida and started in the auto industry as a Ford Motor Co. marketing trainee in the 1960s. He followed that experience by joining IBM in its service bureau.

He has said he became the bureau's top-ranked sales representative in 1969, his third year in the role.

He founded Universal Computer Systems in 1970 in his living room, with an initial focus on tracking dealership parts inventory.

"I wrote the first parts inventory package in the evenings, and then went out and sold it," Brockman said in a biography on his personal website. "I actually sold in the daytime, programmed at night, and processed on the weekend."

Universal Computer Systems merged with Reynolds in a $2.8 billion transaction in 2006, which took then-publicly traded Reynolds private.

Reynolds is the largest privately held DMS provider in the U.S. today.

Some dealers over the years have described Brockman's style as tough and have been critical of the company's practices regarding third-party data access and the fees it charges certified vendors to receive information stored inside a retailer's DMS.

John Darmento, director of the Gillrie Institute, a dealership technology consultant in Florida that works on DMS conversions, said Reynolds generally has differed from other companies in its rigidity.

"Other vendors, you're talking to a vice president, you say, 'Hey, can you do this for this much money? Or can you change this? Or can you make this change in the contract?' We get a yes or no, and it's done," Darmento said. "With Reynolds, we get a, 'Let me look into it, and I'll get back to you,' which means, let me call and talk to Bob Brockman."

David Muller contributed to this report.