United Rentals Matt Flannery.jpg

United Rentals CEO Flannery Finalizes Executive Leadership Team

May 9, 2019
United Rentals CEO Matt Flannery has named two 20-year leaders to its executive leadership team.

United Rentals Inc., the world’s largest equipment rental company, today announced that its president and CEO, Matthew Flannery, has finalized his executive leadership team. Flannery succeeded Michael Kneeland as CEO on May 8, at which time Kneeland became chairman of the board.

Two 20-year leaders of United Rentals have been promoted to new roles on the executive team, effective immediately:

Paul McDonnell, Chief Commercial Officer: McDonnell will lead the company’s specialty rental operations domestically and abroad, with company-wide responsibility for sales, marketing and digital commerce. McDonnell’s tenure with United Rentals began in district management in 1999, followed by his appointment as region vice president. In 2008, he was named senior vice president, specialty operations and oversaw the strategic expansion of the company’s specialty footprint to more than 340 locations. Most recently, he served as executive vice president, sales and specialty operations.

Dale Asplund, Chief Operating Officer. Asplund will lead the company’s general rentals segment, with company-wide responsibility for safety and operational excellence. In addition, he will continue to lead the company’s functional organizations for information technology, corporate fleet management and procurement. Asplund has served in senior positions with United Rentals since joining the company in 1998, including strategic leadership roles in supply chain operations, fleet management, shared services and acquisition integration. Most recently, he served as executive vice president, business services and chief information officer.

Also continuing to serve on the executive leadership team are Craig Pintoff, chief administrative and legal officer, and Jessica Graziano, chief financial officer.

“Our company has benefitted from the seasoned leadership of Paul and Dale for the past two decades,” said Matthew Flannery, chief executive officer of United Rentals. “Their new roles underscore the deep bench strength we have within United Rentals, as well as the continuity we’ve achieved with our succession plan. I look forward to working with our executive team and board of directors – and most of all, with our employees – as we write the next chapter of our growth.”

About the Author

Michael Roth | Editor

Michael Roth has covered the equipment rental industry full time for RER since 1989 and has served as the magazine’s editor in chief since 1994. He has nearly 30 years experience as a professional journalist. Roth has visited hundreds of rental centers and industry manufacturers, written hundreds of feature stories for RER and thousands of news stories for the magazine and its electronic newsletter RER Reports. Roth has interviewed leading executives for most of the industry’s largest rental companies and manufacturers as well as hundreds of smaller independent companies. He has visited with and reported on rental companies and manufacturers in Europe, Central America and Asia as well as Mexico, Canada and the United States. Roth was co-founder of RER Reports, the industry’s first weekly newsletter, which began as a fax newsletter in 1996, and later became an online newsletter. Roth has spoken at conventions sponsored by the American Rental Association, Associated Equipment Distributors, California Rental Association and other industry events and has spoken before industry groups in several countries. He lives and works in Los Angeles when he’s not traveling to cover industry events.