Caterpillar Names New Group President for Resource Industries Division
Caterpillar’s board of directors elected Denise Johnson, currently vice president with responsibility for the Material Handling & Underground Division, as group president of Resource Industries. The appointment follows the recently announced retirement of group president Ed Rapp.
Johnson joined Caterpillar in 2011 as general manager of its Specialty Products business unit where she was responsible for nearly 20 facilities around the world. She came to Caterpillar after a 22-year career with General Motors, where she worked in product management and operations in the United States, Canada and Brazil. A year later she was elected vice president of the Diversified Products Division with responsibility for industries including forestry, paving and on-highway trucks. In 2013 she became vice president of the Integrated Manufacturing Operations Division overseeing major operations in Caterpillar’s largest division at that time.
“Denise leads one of the largest and most complex businesses in the company,” said Caterpillar chairman and CEO Doug Oberhelman. “Her division makes products primarily for the mining, waste and construction industries and employs about 8,000 people in 14 locations spanning four continents. She has successfully managed costs during the mining downturn and had been deeply involved in restructuring within Resource Industries, all while gaining market position for multiple products in her portfolio. Denise has accomplished these business results while also delivering outstanding safety and quality metrics.”
Oberhelman added that Johnson has strengthened relationships with key mining customers and served as a strong role model to recruit more female engineers.
Johnson’s move is effective April 1.
About the Author
Michael Roth
Editor
Michael Roth has covered the equipment rental industry full time for RER since 1989 and has served as the magazine’s editor in chief since 1994. He has nearly 30 years experience as a professional journalist. Roth has visited hundreds of rental centers and industry manufacturers, written hundreds of feature stories for RER and thousands of news stories for the magazine and its electronic newsletter RER Reports. Roth has interviewed leading executives for most of the industry’s largest rental companies and manufacturers as well as hundreds of smaller independent companies. He has visited with and reported on rental companies and manufacturers in Europe, Central America and Asia as well as Mexico, Canada and the United States. Roth was co-founder of RER Reports, the industry’s first weekly newsletter, which began as a fax newsletter in 1996, and later became an online newsletter. Roth has spoken at conventions sponsored by the American Rental Association, Associated Equipment Distributors, California Rental Association and other industry events and has spoken before industry groups in several countries. He lives and works in Los Angeles when he’s not traveling to cover industry events.