Rodney O'Neal is an American businessman.Forbes
/ref> He served as the president and chief executive officer of Delphi Automotive.Delphi biography
/ref>Sprint Nextel Board of Directors

Biography

Rodney O'Neal was born in Dayton, Ohio to parents who stressed the importance of education very early on. In his early years, he delivered The Dayton Daily News, and at 13, was named newspaper delivery boy of the year. He later worked in the newspaper's circulation department until he left for college.

Early life

He graduated from the

General Motors Institute Kettering University is a private university in Flint, Michigan. It offers Bachelor of Science, bachelor of science and master's degree, master’s degrees in Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, STEM (science, technology, engineeri ...

, now Kettering University, and received a Master's degree from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

Career

He joined

General Motors The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...

in 1976 as a production engineer, making steering wheels. A year later, he was promoted to front line supervisor. Over the course of the next several years, he would hold a number of engineering, production and manufacturing positions in locations throughout the United States, Portugal and Canada. In 1997, he became vice president of General Motors and general manager of Delphi Interior Systems. In 1998, when Delphi became an independent company, he became vice president. Since 2007, he has served as president and CEO. In November 2011, O'Neal rang the bell at the New York Stock Exchange to mark Delphi's initial public offering. He sits on the board of directors of Delphi and Sprint Nextel. He is also a board member of the

Michigan Manufacturers Association Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

and

Woodward, Inc. Woodward, Inc. is an American designer, manufacturer, and service provider of control systems and control system components (e.g. fuel pumps, engine controls, actuators, air valves, fuel nozzles, and electronics) for aircraft engines, industria ...

He formerly served on the board of directors of the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. He is a member of the Executive Leadership Council, an organization which supports African-Americans in leadership positions in business, education, or the community. He also sits on the board of Inroads, an organization which aims to offer internships in the corporate world to ethnic minorities. He sits on the advisory board of Focus: HOPE, a Detroit-based organization which tackles racism and poverty. In 2015 he was named to the 75th class of the Automotive Hall of Fame.

References

Kettering University alumni Stanford University alumni Businesspeople from Dayton, Ohio General Motors people Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company people Sprint Corporation people Year of birth missing (living people) Living people African-American business executives American business executives 21st-century African-American people {{US-business-bio-stub