22.09.2010

Bohn to retire from Oshkosh

Robert G. Bohn, chairman and chief executive of Oshkosh, the owner of JLG, has decided to retire at the end of the year.

Charles L. Szews, currently president and chief operating officer, will take over as chief executive on January 1st, 2011. Richard M. Donnelly, a non-executive director, will take over the role of chairman at the company’s Annual General Meeting in February at which time Bohn will leave the business...
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Robert Bohn

Szews joined Oshkosh in 1996 as chief financial officer and has been heavily involved with mergers, acquisitions and new business development. He was president of JLG during the six month transition period after it was acquired by Oshkosh in 2006.

He was appointed to his current position in 2007, when he also joined the board of directors.
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Charlie Szews

Donnelly has been a director of Oshkosh since 2001, he spent most of his career with General Motors, retiring in 1999 from the post of president of General Motors, Europe. From then until last year he as an industrial partner in Ripplewood Holdings, a private equity firm.

“The Oshkosh board of directors would like to thank Bob Bohn for his many years of successful leadership, and we wish him well in retirement,” said Dick Donnelly “Bob is leaving Oshkosh Corporation in the very capable hands of Charlie Szews, who has been an integral part of the Company’s success.”

Bohn joined Oshkosh in 1992 as group vice president manufacturing and is credited with introducing multiple-product manufacturing on a single production line at Oshkosh, long before it became a mainstream industry practice.
He was appointed as president and chief operating officer in 1994 and has transformed the company from a $400 million Midwest operation into a multi-billion dollar international corporation and a Fortune 350 Company.

Vertikal Comment

Regardless of the reasons or rationale for Bohn’s departure he will most certainly be ‘bowing out’ on a high. Thanks to some fantastic successes with military contracts Oshkosh is currently having its best year ever, but knows that the recent flow of large- urgent orders for military vehicles cannot be maintained -
no matter, the massive increase in business came at a perfect time to see the company through the current downturn and reduce the significant debt it had taken on to acquire JLG.

Szews is a wily businessman and has been the architect of Oshkosh’s diversification, he also knows the access business from the inside, which one assumes will be an advantage as the business becomes more reliant on the non-defence business units once again.

This is probably a perfect time for someone in Bohn’s position to call it a day, although he is only 56.