COLUMBUS, Ind. – Cummins Inc. today announced that Distribution Business President Pamela Carter, the first woman to lead one of the company’s four main business units, is retiring effective April 1.
Carter, who became Indiana’s first African-American woman Attorney General in 1993, has been with Cummins since 1997. She initially served as the company’s vice president – general counsel and corporate secretary. Carter then held several key positions within Cummins Fleetguard before leading Cummins Filtration from 2005 to 2007. She has been president of the Distribution Business Unit since 2007.
“Pamela is a uniquely talented individual, who joined us as a skilled lawyer and very quickly mastered the business side, becoming one of our top business leaders,” said Tom Linebarger, chairman and CEO, Cummins Inc. “She is a leader in every sense of the word who helped grow our business across the globe, strengthened our communities and made those around her better. She will truly be missed.”
Distribution sales were $1.5 billion in 2007 when Carter took over leadership of that business unit. They were on pace to reach $5 billion in 2014 – a compound annual growth rate of around 18 percent.
Carter’s impact, however, has gone well beyond outstanding business results. She spent countless hours helping the company expand its operations in Africa and last year Carter oversaw one of the largest acquisitions in Cummins history when the company acquired its formerly independent distributors in North America.
She also was a champion for under-represented demographic groups at the company including women, Africans and African-Americans and all people of color. She also worked tirelessly to recruit and hire veterans.
Carter, a 1984 Indiana University School of Law grad, was deputy chief of staff to Indiana Gov. Evan Bayh from 1988 to 1992, spent some time in private practice at Baker & Daniels in Indianapolis and then ran for Indiana Attorney General, serving in that post from 1993 to 1997. She was the first African-American woman ever elected a state attorney general in the United States. She briefly went back into private practice before joining Cummins.
“My time at Cummins has been extremely rewarding,” Carter said. “Doing good at our company means more than making money. Business success is part of it, but there is also a rich tradition of building stronger communities to ultimately build stronger markets for our products. I’ve seen how powerful that combination can be.”
