25.05.2010

Paylor to retire from JLG

Craig Paylor president of aerial lift and telehandler manufacturer JLG has announced that he will step down from the post on July 1 and take retirement.
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Craig Paylor

His role will be taken by Wilson Jones, currently president of Oshkosh’s Fire and Emergency business.
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Wilson Jones

Oshkosh president and chief operating officer Charlie Szews said: “We wish Craig the best in retirement and look forward to Wilson successfully leading JLG and expanding the business globally. We expect to build upon the outstanding foundation set by Craig at JLG, and are pleased to bring Wilson’s skills to sustain and grow JLG’s global leadership position in the Access Equipment market.”

Paylor, 54, joined JLG in 1978 as a district sales manager was appointed as senior vice president of sales and market development in 1999 and was appointed as president of in May of 2007 following a six month transition period under Szews.

Wilson has been in the specialty vehicle manufacturing industry for more than 20 years. He joined Oshkosh in 2005 as the vice president and general manager of the airport products business unit and later became vice-president, sales and marketing for the fire and emergency group.

In 2007, he was promoted to president of Pierce Manufacturing and to the position of executive vice-president of the Fire and Emergency segment in 2008. He will be replaced from within the Pierce Manufacturing business.

Vertikal Comment

This is something of a surprise given his age and the fact that he has possibly seen the through the worst of the current recession. There will be many who will be wondring why? It also appears to have been a surprise to him in that he was scheduled as the keynote speaker at this years Europlatform conference.

Paylor has spent his entire career with JLG and stuck with the company through thick and thin riding out some extreme management and financial crisis as well as enduring some fairly extreme or difficult ‘regimes’.

In the end his diligence, not to mention endurance, paid off when he was selected by new owners Oshkosh to head up the business in 2007.

Paylor is still relatively young and financially secure so it will be interesting to see what he does next. There will be many among JLG’s staff and distributors who will be sorry to hear this news.