PEORIA, Ill., June 11, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Caterpillar Inc.
(NYSE: CAT) today announced the following officer changes:
- Mary Bell, vice president with
responsibility for the Building Construction Products Division, has
elected to retire. Ken Hoefling has
been appointed as a Caterpillar vice president to replace Bell.
Both moves are effective July 1,
2015.
- Mark Sweeney, vice president
with responsibility for the Europe South America Operations
Division, has elected to retire effective August 1, 2015.
- William Finerty, vice president
with responsibility for the Diversified Products Division, has
elected to leave the company to pursue other opportunities. His
move is effective August 1,
2015.
Mary Bell Retirement
After 29 years of dedicated service to Caterpillar, Mary Bell, vice president with responsibility
for the Building Construction Products (BCP) Division, has elected
to retire.
"Mary grew up in the construction industry and has a deep
understanding of customer value," said Tom
Pellette, Caterpillar group president with responsibility
for the company's Construction Industries segment. "She instilled
that understanding in others and constantly drove changes to
improve value for the customer and the enterprise, including the
major turnaround she led in BCP, enabling that division to be a
high-performing growth business delivering excellent value to the
company. Mary is a strong people developer and mentor; she leaves
behind a tremendous people legacy. I thank Mary for her many
contributions to Caterpillar, and wish her and her husband, David,
a long and happy retirement."
Bell joined Caterpillar in 1981 as a parts and service field
representative. From 1983 to 1988, she worked for Yancey Bros. Co., a Cat® dealer, gaining direct
dealer experience that proved invaluable throughout her career. She
returned to Caterpillar in 1988 and progressed through various
management positions in parts marketing, remanufacturing and
service support. Bell served as a machine business manager for
Caterpillar's Latin American Division from 1996 to 1999 and later
became the general manager of the Cat Distribution Services
Division. In 2004, she was named a Caterpillar vice president where
she led the Logistics Division and served as chairman and president
of Cat Logistics Services Inc., the company's former third-party
logistics business. In 2007, she moved to her current position as
vice president of BCP.
Bell has a bachelor's degree from the University of Iowa and is a graduate of the
University of Michigan's Executive
Program and the Corporate Leadership Center/Northwestern University CEO Perspectives
Program.
Mark Sweeney Retirement
Mark Sweeney, vice president with
responsibility for the Europe South America Operations Division,
has elected to retire following more than two decades served at
Caterpillar and its wholly owned subsidiary, FG Wilson
(Engineering) Ltd.
"Mark has a unique blend of engineering, marketing and
operations background, which made him the ideal person to
successfully lead the recent transformation of many of our key
European operations, positioning them to be globally competitive,"
said Pellette. "He came to Caterpillar through our acquisition of
FG Wilson in the mid-1990s. We immediately recognized his technical
expertise and leadership skills, and he's been an outstanding
performer ever since. I thank Mark for his tireless service and
wish him, his wife Colette and their family all the best in
retirement."
As part of Caterpillar's overall cost management efforts and
focus on creating end-to-end businesses, groups within Sweeney's
division, which include manufacturing operations for Caterpillar
Belgium S.A., Caterpillar France S.A., European Fabrications and
Caterpillar Brazil Ltd., will be absorbed into other areas of the
company.
Sweeney joined FG Wilson in 1994 as the manager of research and
development following his time as an engineering manager with
Mercury Marine based in the United States. After coming to FG Wilson,
he held a number of research and engineering leadership positions
with increasing responsibility and, in 2000, was named a FG Wilson
vice president with responsibility for product development and FG
Wilson marketing services. He was appointed FG Wilson managing
director in 2002. In 2006, Sweeney was promoted to global
operations director for Caterpillar's Electric Power Division. In
October 2011, he was elected a
Caterpillar vice president and into his current role based in
Geneva, Switzerland.
Sweeney, a native of Co. Fermanagh,
Northern Ireland, graduated from Queen's University,
Belfast, with a 1st Class Honours
Degree in mechanical engineering in 1981 and a Ph.D. in mechanical
engineering in 1986. He also participated in the Darden Executive
Development Program at the University of
Virginia in 2004. He was awarded an Order of the British
Empire (OBE) in the 2007 Queen's Birthday Honours List for Services
to Business and Commerce in Northern
Ireland and an honorary D.SC. degree from The Queens University of Belfast in 2011.
William Finerty Departure
Bill Finerty, vice president with
responsibility for the Diversified Products Division (DPD), has
elected to leave the company to pursue other opportunities. As part
of Caterpillar's cost management efforts, the groups within DPD
will be absorbed within other company divisions. Those groups
include Caterpillar Industrial & Waste Group, Defense &
Federal Products, Forest Products, Global On-Highway Truck Group,
Global Paving and OEM Solutions Group.
"I want to thank Bill for his contributions to Caterpillar. His
enthusiastic customer focus combined with his extensive marketing,
dealer development and industry experience made him a valuable
member of our team for three decades," said Rob Charter, group president with responsibility
for Caterpillar's Customer and Dealer Support business. "I wish
Bill well in his new endeavors."
Finerty joined Caterpillar in 1984 through the marketing
training program and held numerous positions in the areas of
marketing, finance and mining before transitioning to finance
representative positions in Cat Financial Services in 1988. Over
the next decade, Finerty held assignments with increasing
responsibility, which included project engineering responsibility
for track-type tractors, business research and planning as well as
positions in Geneva that included
product/marketing manager of mining and merchandising manager
accountable for Building Construction Products. After returning to
the United States, his roles
included San Francisco district
manager, commercial mining manager, marketing manager, revenue
manager and regional manager for the Americas Distribution Services
Division (ADSD). In 2011, Finerty was named vice president with
responsibility for ADSD, and in October
2013 he assumed his current position.
Finerty holds a bachelor's degree in accounting and Executive
Education certificates from Bradley
University and IMD (International Institute for Management
Development) located in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Ken Hoefling Appointed Vice President
Following Mary Bell's retirement
from Caterpillar, Caterpillar's Board of Directors has appointed
Ken Hoefling as vice president with
responsibility for the Building Construction Products (BCP)
Division.
"First and foremost, Ken is an exceptional leader who enables
his teams to succeed. His extensive operations and engineering
background, coupled with his global experience, make him an
exemplary candidate to lead BCP," said Pellette. "Ken is also known
for his acute focus on delivering results and serving as an agent
for innovative change, two qualities that will serve him well in
this role. He understands the importance of connecting operations
and design with customer value, which is ideal for this business as
we continue to grow our leadership in this segment of the
construction industry."
Hoefling began his Caterpillar career as an engineer in
Peoria, Illinois, in 1990.
Engineering roles then took him to Grenoble, France, and then back to Peoria as a supervisor. In 2002, he joined the
Product Support Division in marketing roles with increasing
responsibility, including a facility manager role in Shanghai, China. Hoefling became general
manager in the Reman Components Division in 2007, which included
responsibility for operations in Shanghai and Singapore as well as Mossville and East
Peoria, Illinois. He held that role until 2013 when he
started his current responsibilities as general manager of Steel
Products in the Remanufacturing Components and Work Tools Division
based in Peoria.
Hoefling holds a bachelor's degree from Iowa State University and an Executive MBA from the
Caterpillar Digging Deep program at Stanford
University.
About Caterpillar:
For 90 years, Caterpillar Inc. has been making sustainable
progress possible and driving positive change on every continent.
Customers turn to Caterpillar to help them develop infrastructure,
energy and natural resource assets. With 2014 sales and revenues of
$55.184 billion, Caterpillar is the
world's leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment,
diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines and
diesel-electric locomotives. The company principally operates
through its three product segments - Construction Industries,
Resource Industries and Energy & Transportation - and also
provides financing and related services through its Financial
Products segment. For more information, visit caterpillar.com. To
connect with us on social media, visit
caterpillar.com/social-media.
Forward-looking Statements:
Certain statements in this press release relate to future events
and expectations and are forward-looking statements within the
meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
Words such as "believe," "estimate," "will be," "will," "would,"
"expect," "anticipate," "plan," "project," "intend," "could,"
"should" or other similar words or expressions often identify
forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of
historical fact are forward-looking statements, including, without
limitation, statements regarding our outlook, projections,
forecasts or trend descriptions. These statements do not guarantee
future performance, and we do not undertake to update our
forward-looking statements.
Caterpillar's actual results may differ materially from those
described or implied in our forward-looking statements based on a
number of factors, including, but not limited to: (i) global and
regional economic conditions and economic conditions in the
industries we serve; (ii) government monetary or fiscal policies
and infrastructure spending; (iii) commodity price changes,
component price increases, fluctuations in demand for our products
or significant shortages of component products; (iv) disruptions or
volatility in global financial markets limiting our sources of
liquidity or the liquidity of our customers, dealers and suppliers;
(v) political and economic risks, commercial instability and events
beyond our control in the countries in which we operate; (vi)
failure to maintain our credit ratings and potential resulting
increases to our cost of borrowing and adverse effects on our cost
of funds, liquidity, competitive position and access to capital
markets; (vii) our Financial Products segment's risks associated
with the financial services industry; (viii) changes in interest
rates or market liquidity conditions; (ix) an increase in
delinquencies, repossessions or net losses of Cat Financial's
customers; (x) new regulations or changes in financial services
regulations; (xi) a failure to realize, or a delay in realizing,
all of the anticipated benefits of our acquisitions, joint ventures
or divestitures; (xii) international trade policies and their
impact on demand for our products and our competitive position;
(xiii) our ability to develop, produce and market quality products
that meet our customers' needs; (xiv) the impact of the highly
competitive environment in which we operate on our sales and
pricing; (xv) failure to realize all of the anticipated benefits
from initiatives to increase our productivity, efficiency and cash
flow and to reduce costs; (xvi) additional restructuring costs or a
failure to realize anticipated savings or benefits from past or
future cost reduction actions; (xvii) inventory management
decisions and sourcing practices of our dealers and our OEM
customers; (xviii) compliance with environmental laws and
regulations; (xix) alleged or actual violations of trade or
anti-corruption laws and regulations; (xx) additional tax expense
or exposure; (xxi) currency fluctuations; (xxii) our or Cat
Financial's compliance with financial covenants; (xxiii) increased
pension plan funding obligations; (xxiv) union disputes or other
employee relations issues; (xxv) significant legal proceedings,
claims, lawsuits or government investigations; (xxvi) changes in
accounting standards; (xxvii) failure or breach of IT security;
(xxviii) adverse effects of unexpected events including natural
disasters; and (xxix) other factors described in more detail under
"Item 1A. Risk Factors" in our Form 10-K filed with the SEC on
February 17, 2015, for the year ended
December 31, 2014.
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SOURCE Caterpillar Inc.