After graduation in 1983, Goodyear began his career as an
investment banker at a
Wall Street brokerage,
Kidder Peabody, advising companies on mergers, acquisitions and financing. He left Kidder Peabody in 1989 as Vice President and joined
Freeport-McMoRan, one of the world's largest producers of copper and gold, as Vice President - Corporate Finance. He was promoted to Executive Vice President and
chief financial officer in 1995, ultimately leaving the firm in 1997 to serve as president of Goodyear Capital Corporation until 1999. In 1999, Goodyear joined
BHP as
chief financial officer based in
London. He served in that role until 2001, when he became Chief Development Officer, a post he held until 2003. In 2003 Goodyear succeeded Brian Gilbertson as the chief executive officer of BHP relocating to
Melbourne. Goodyear retired from BHP on September 30, 2007 and was succeeded by
Marius Kloppers. Goodyear was considered by
Businessweek to have been responsible for BHP's turn-around during the 2000s since, under his leadership, sales increased by 47% and profits by 78%, placing him on top of their "Europe BW50 Leaders" list. Others, including consulting firm
Deloitte, attributed BHP's success to rising global commodity prices. On February 6, 2009,
Temasek Holdings, which had a portfolio worth 185 billion Singapore dollars ($123 billion US dollars) at the time, announced his appointment as a board member and CEO-designate, to commence on March 1, 2009, succeeding
Ho Ching from October 1, 2009. He was identified as a possible candidate for the top office in Temasek in 2007, when the Temasek Board began reviewing internal and external CEO candidates since early 2005. Goodyear would have been the first foreign executive to run the Singaporean sovereign fund company, however, on July 21, 2009, the Temasek Board and Goodyear announced that they had mutually agreed that he would not be taking over as CEO, citing differences in opinions on strategy. Instead, Ho Ching continued in the position, while Goodyear stepped down on August 15, 2009. As of September 2015, Goodyear is again the president of "Goodyear Capital Corporation" and "Goodyear Investment Company". ==Personal life==