Rich McLeer

Chief Executive Officer Accommodations Plus International (API)

Last Reviewed: September 27, 2026

Executive Summary

Rich McLeer is Chief Executive Officer of Accommodations Plus International (API), a Melville, New York company that books and manages hotel rooms and ground transportation for airline crews and, increasingly, for passengers stranded by delays and cancellations. He came to the travel business from automotive finance technology: a CPA by training, he joined Dealertrack in its first year and spent almost fifteen years there, finishing as Executive Vice President, Technology and Service Solutions and Chief Information Officer before Cox Automotive acquired the company in 2015. At API he has led the company through its June 2025 sale to the private equity firm Haveli Investments and a run of new airline contracts.

Career Highlights

• Chief Executive Officer of API, which says it supports more than 100 airlines worldwide with crew accommodation and disrupted-passenger (DPAX) technology.
• Named as CEO in API’s June 2025 announcement of its acquisition by Haveli Investments, and in its August 2026 partnership announcement with Copa Airlines.
• At Dealertrack from February 2001, holding successive roles in lender development, credit and contract solutions, and strategy before becoming Senior Vice President and CIO in 2009 and Executive Vice President, Technology and Service Solutions and CIO in 2013.
• Director of Dealertrack’s Chrome Data joint-venture entities from November 2014.
• Senior Vice President and National Product Director for the Bank of America Auto Group from 1996 to 2001.
• Certified public accountant with a BS in Accounting from Hofstra University.

Professional Journey

McLeer trained as an accountant. After a BS in Accounting from Hofstra University he spent four years in public accounting, which his personal site identifies as Ernst & Young, and qualified as a CPA. He then became controller of Ellesse U.S.A., then a division of Reebok, and from 1993 to 1996 worked at Trans Union Corporation.

In 1996 he moved into auto finance at Bank of America, where he held marketing, sales and business development roles before becoming Senior Vice President and National Product Director for the bank’s Auto Group. That put him on the lender side of car financing just as dealers and lenders were beginning to move credit applications online.

Dealertrack was built to connect those two sides, and McLeer joined in February 2001 as National Lender Development Manager. API’s biography describes him as a co-founder. He stayed through the company’s growth into a public company, becoming Vice President of Credit and Contract Solutions in 2005, Senior Vice President of Strategy & Development in 2006, and Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer in 2009. From January 2013 he was Executive Vice President, Technology and Service Solutions and Chief Information Officer, and from November 2014 he also sat on the boards of the company’s Chrome Data joint-venture entities. Cox Automotive completed its acquisition of Dealertrack in October 2015, when the company delisted and deregistered its shares.

He is now Chief Executive Officer of Accommodations Plus International. API sources and books crew hotels and ground transport for airlines. Its operations and IT centres include New York, Toronto, São Paulo, Manila and Chennai, and it also serves rail operators, cruise lines and sports teams. Under McLeer the company has pushed further into disrupted-passenger handling through its DPAX product, which automates rebooking into hotels when flights are cancelled. In June 2025 Haveli Investments acquired API, and McLeer said at the time that the deal would let the company invest in new products, expand its network and enter new markets. API has since announced partnerships with Akasa Air, Thai Airways, International Airlines Group and, in August 2026, Copa Airlines.

Education

Hofstra University

BS, Accounting