Al Vinikour, president of Vinikour Communications, has been around the auto industry since he was old enough to walk, as his family owned several junkyards in Northwest Indiana. He finished college at Loyola University and after a two-year stint as a tax accountant at Union Oil Company of California, gravitated towards automotive, aerospace and defense public relations — paralleling that with a journalism career writing about the same industries.
Though still actively involved with his editorial services company preparing a number of membership directories for professional auto writers' associations, he focuses mainly on writing about cars and trucks via his multitude of newspaper outlets.
Vinikour lives in Brownstown, Michigan, with his wife Donna, a retiree of Ford Motor Company's Public Affairs staff.