James Owens Grad EC '73
Caterpillar Chairman and CEO Jim Owens is College’s 2009 Person of the Year
April 22, 2009
Caterpillar Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jim Owens has been named the 2009 Person of the Year by North Carolina State University's College of Management. Owens received his award as part of the college’s first annual Leadership and Innovation Showcase, held Tuesday, April 21, at Nelson Hall on the NC State campus.
“We established this award last year to recognize a distinguished individual who has made outstanding contributions to the college, to his or her profession and to the NC State community,” said Ira R. Weiss, dean of the college. “This award celebrates the loyalty and devotion that Jim has demonstrated through his faithful participation in the life of the college and the university, as well as the vision and leadership he has brought to the global company of Caterpillar. We are very pleased to present this award this year to Jim Owens.”
Owens, who received his Ph.D. in economics at NC State in 1973, has a long history of service to the College of Management. He was a guest speaker for the college’s Wachovia Executive Lecture Series and has been instrumental in securing the heads of other international corporations for the lecture series.
He established the James W. Owens Graduate Economics Fund, which provides stipend support for doctoral economics students at NC State, and established the Owens Distinguished Professorship in Supply Chain Management. Owens also has provided funds to further develop the college’s supply chain management program and academic curriculum, and has met informally with economics doctoral students while in the area for visits to local Caterpillar facilities.
In addition to his support for the College of Management, Owens has provided generous financial support to the university and in July, he will begin serving on the North Carolina State University Board of Trustees. A native of Elizabeth City, N.C., Owens also has his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in textiles technology from NC State’s College of Textiles.
Benjamin P. Jenkins III, past vice chairman and past president of the General Bank at Wachovia Corporation and currently serving in an executive role with Morgan Stanley, received the 2008 Person of the Year Award. He presented this year’s Person of the Year Award to Owens at a ceremony that concluded the college’s Leadership and Innovation Showcase.
This is the first year for the showcase, at which nearly 30 student teams from throughout the college displayed the results of their practicum and team project work. Owens concluded the special event by announcing the winners of the student showcase scholarship awards.
Owens has a long and distinguished career with Caterpillar. He joined the company in 1972 as a corporate economist and became chairman and chief executive officer in February 2004.
His career path includes appointment in 1975 as chief economist of Caterpillar Overseas S.A. in Geneva, Switzerland. From 1980 until 1987, he held managerial positions in Peoria, Ill., in the accounting and product source planning departments. In 1987, Owens became managing director of P.T. Natra Raya, Caterpillar’s joint venture in Indonesia. He held that position until 1990 when he was elected a corporate vice president and named president of Solar Turbines Incorporated, a Caterpillar subsidiary in San Diego. In 1993, he came to Peoria as vice president and chief financial officer with administrative responsibility for the Corporate Services Division.
In 1995, Owens was named a group president and member of Caterpillar’s Executive Office. Over the next eight years as a group president, Owens was at various times responsible for 13 of the company’s then 25 divisions. In December 2003, the Caterpillar Board of Directors named Owens vice chairman and appointed him chairman and chief executive officer effective February 1, 2004.
Owens is a director of Alcoa Inc. in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and IBM Corporation in Armonk, New York. He is a director of the Peterson Institute for International Economics; chairman of the International Trade and Investment Task Force of the Business Roundtable, chairman of The Business Council, and a member of the President’s Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations. He is a director of the Council on Foreign Relations and a member of the Global Advisory Council to The Conference Board in New York.
Earlier this year, he was named to the White House Economic Recovery Advisory Board by President Barack Obama. On July 1, 2009, he will begin his term on the Board of Trustees of North Carolina State University.
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