• March 12, 2009

Finbarr O'Neill, a renowned--if peripatetic--auto executive, is moving in a new direction: up. Credited with pulling Hyundai Motor America out of the dustbin of history in the late 1990s, O'Neill left to briefly run Mitsubishi's operations in the U.S. From there, he became CEO of Automotive dealership management-software firm Reynolds & Reynolds.

Last year, O'Neill left R&R to become SVP and general manager of international operations at J.D. Power & Associates. Now, he will be president of the Westlake Village, Calif.-based firm--succeeding Stephen C. Goodall, who is retiring after 30 years with the company.

Before his three-year stint at R&R, O'Neill was co-chairman, president and CEO of Mitsubishi Motors North America, Inc. from 2003 to 2005, and president and CEO of Hyundai Motor America from 1998 to 2003. He joined Hyundai in 1985 as general counsel.

Prior to that, he served as senior counsel for Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., and from 1976 to 1983, he was an associate in the New York office of Skadden Arps, a national law firm.--Karl Greenberg