16.10.2014

Cat management changes

Caterpillar has made a number of appointments in preparation for the retirement of presidents Stu Levenick and SteveWunning at the end of the year.

Caterpillar’s president of resource industries Steve Wunning, 63, who joined the company in 1977, will be replaced by Ed Rapp, 57, while Stu Levenick, 61, president of customer & dealer support, will be replaced by Rob Charter, after 41 years’ service.

Rapp joined the company in 1979 as a pricing analyst and has since served as vice-president of its building construction products division and of its marketing division, Europe, Africa and the Middle East. From 2010 to 2013 he served as president and chief financial officer until assuming his current role as president of construction industries. Rapp will relocate from Singapore to Peoria, Illinois to take up his new role in the new year. Tom Pellette, who is currently president of wholly owned Caterpillar subsidiary, Solar Turbines, will replace Rapp and will also relocate in Peoria.

Charter, who replaces Levenick, joined Caterpillar in 1989 as a development engineer and has since served as product manager in Tokyo, southern region manager of the company’s Latin America division and vice president of its Asia Pacific distribution services division. He is currently vice-president of the excavation division.

Caterpillar chairman Doug Oberhelman, said: “For the last 10 years, Stu and Steve have both provided critical leadership as part of Caterpillar’s executive office, capping Caterpillar careers that together total nearly 80 years of service. We will all miss their outstanding leadership, and both leave unique and lasting legacies within Caterpillar, as the company has transformed itself and dramatically expanded to serve new markets and industries over the course of their distinguished careers."

"In the coming years, I look forward to working with Rob, Tom and the rest of Caterpillar’s leadership team as we continue our drive toward improving performance, growing the company, focusing on the customer and delivering our strategic goals over the next several years," he added.