COLUMBUS, Ind. — Cummins Inc. announced yesterday that Joe Loughrey, president and chief operating officer, will retire from Cummins in March 2009. Effective this Aug. 1, Loughrey will become Cummins vice chairman and remain a member of the board of directors until his retirement.
“Shortly after my 35th anniversary with Cummins, I will retire from the company,” Loughrey told Cummins employees yesterday. “I have planned the date of my departure for more than two years as part of ongoing and regular succession discussions with the board of directors.
“With Tim [Solso] continuing in his role as chairman, and the two of us being too close in age for me to replace him, my retirement gives the board ample opportunity to observe and evaluate potential future leaders of the company,” Loughrey added.
Loughrey has been president and COO of Cummins since May 2005.
Loughrey, who also serves on the company’s board of directors and on the board of the Cummins Foundation, joined Cummins in 1974. He was named president of the Engine Business in 1999, a position he held until assuming his current role. Prior to that role, he was chief technical officer and group president – industrial for the Engine Business from 1996 to 1999.
During Loughrey’s career, Cummins – based in Columbus, Ind. – has grown into a Fortune 250 company that serves customers in more than 190 countries and territories through a network of 5,000 distributor and dealer locations. Cummins 38,700 employees generated more than $13 billion in sales in 2007. More than half of those sales were made outside the United States.
“Joe’s 35 years with the company provide us with a remarkable legacy,” said Tim Solso, Cummins chairman and chief executive officer. “Without his tireless efforts, his unrelenting pursuit of excellence and his extraordinary personal commitment to Cummins, the company would not have achieved the success it has today.”
Along with his responsibilities at Cummins, Loughrey, a graduate of the University of Notre Dame, is recognized as a leading proponent of advanced manufacturing, both in Indiana and nationally. He is a member and past chairman of the Manufacturing Institute, the educational arm of the National Association of Manufacturers, as well as chairman of Conexus Indiana, an organization dedicated to bringing manufacturing and logistics jobs to Indiana.
He also is a member of the board of Sauer-Danfoss, Inc. and the Columbus Community Education Coalition. He is Vice Chairman of the Advisory Council for the College of Arts & Letters at the University of Notre Dame and a Senior Advisory Board Member of the Tauber Manufacturing Institute at the University of Michigan.
His honors include being named International Senior Member of AIESEC International; the 1994 Volunteer of the Year for the Association of Retarded Citizens; a recipient of the AIESEC Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998; the Distinguished Alumni Honoree for the Massachusetts Boys’ State 60th Anniversary; a member of Irish America "Business 100" in 2005; a recipient of the Achievement Award for Business by the Ireland Chamber of Commerce in the U.S., 2007; recipient of the 2007 Dick Johnson Leadership Award by the March of Dimes; Indiana Global Business Person of the Year, 2007; Ellis Island Medal of Honor Recipient, 2008 and a Sagamore of the Wabash by Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels in 2008.
For more information about Cummins, go to: www.cummins.com.
