Cummins Names Linebarger President and COO; Names New VP - Engine Business Purchasing and Supply Chain
Columbus, Ind.-based Cummins last week announced that Tom Linebarger has been named president and chief operating officer of Cummins Inc., replacing Joe Loughrey, 58, who will become vice chairman, effective Aug. 1, until he retires in March 2009.
Linebarger, 45, currently serves as president of Cummins Power Generation and has been an executive vice president since 2005. He formerly was the company’s chief financial officer.
“Tom’s strong financial background, general management skills, understanding of Cummins’ business operations and his commitment to the needs of Cummins’ customers and other stakeholders make him an outstanding choice for president and COO,” said Tim Solso, Cummins chairman and CEO. “The board of directors and I are extremely pleased to have him assume this key leadership role.”
Linebarger joined Cummins in 1994 and served in various roles, including as managing director of Cummins Turbo Technologies and vice president of the Engine Business’ Supply Chain Management before being named chief financial officer in 2000 — a role he held for three years.
Linebarger moved to the position of president of Power Generation in 2003 and quickly helped return that business to profitability. Under his leadership, the business went from an operating loss of $19 million in 2003 to an operating profit of $334 million in 2007. Today, Power Generation is at the high end of its sales growth and profit targets and is expanding its businesses globally.
In other company news, Steve Spaulding, a 32-year Cummins veteran, has been promoted to vice president - engine business purchasing and supply chain. Most recently he served as executive director – IT and supply chain for the engine business.
Spaulding will assume engine business purchasing responsibilities from Ignacio Garcia, who recently was named chief manufacturing and procurement officer. In addition, he will continue to lead the EBU Information Technology organization until a new EBU IT leader is named and fully transitions.
Spaulding joined Cummins in 1976 and has worked in EBU manufacturing, supply chain, information technology and finance. He served as a plant controller and systems leader at the Jamestown engine plant and was N14 product manager at the Columbus engine plant.
He helped drive the initial transition to a new team-based work system for five existing southern Indiana plants and later led the start-up of the company’s migration toward the Oracle ERP business systems.
Cummins Inc. is a corporation of complementary business units that design, manufacture, distribute and service engines and related technologies, including fuel systems, controls, air handling, filtration, emission solutions and electrical power generation systems.
