Cross & Crescent

In 2006, under the leadership of CEO and Chairman James W. Owens (North Carolina State 1968), Caterpillar Inc. had more than $41.5 billion in sales and revenue and was ranked No. 55 on the Fortune 500 list.

The 2006 results reflected more than an $11 billion, or 28 percent, increase in sales and revenue from 2005.

Headquartered in Peoria, Illinois, Caterpillar is the world’s leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, and industrial gas turbines.

From Within

In 1972, Owens joined Caterpillar as a corporate economist. During the past 35 years, he has advanced through the company serving in various global management positions.

After expanding his leadership skills in different Caterpillar office locations, Owens returned to the company headquarters in 1993, and was appointed vice president and chief financial officer with administrative responsibility for the Corporate Services Division.

In 1995, he was then named a group president and member of Caterpillar’s executive office. In the next eight years as a group president, Owens was at various times responsible for 13 of the company’s 25 divisions.

In December 2003, the Caterpillar board of directors named Owens vice chairman and appointed him chairman and CEO effective February 1, 2004.

“I think it’s a terrific opportunity to play quarterback for one of the world’s great companies,” he says.

The company has a long tradition of promoting and developing leaders from within its ranks. Senior management strives to put employees into different circumstances, in different parts of the world, with different business units, different functions, to test an individual’s capabilities and leadership skills.

“I was just very fortunate to be in the right place, and to have a lot of opportunities to do very interesting work and to continue to learn about the company and the global economy and this business, and to get promoted along the way,” Owens says.

Small Town Roots

Owens grew up in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, a small town near the Atlantic Ocean.

When it came time to consider his college options, Owens says in North Carolina there were really only four: North Carolina State University, University of North Carolina, Duke University, and Wake Forest University.

Because of its reputation for math and science, Owens chose North Carolina State. Even though he wasn’t pressured to attend college, Owens became the first in his family to do so.

He wound up staying at North Carolina State for eight years — earning three degrees, getting married, and becoming a father.

“Caterpillar found me,” is how Owens says he first learned about the company while finishing his doctoral degree in economics.

At the time, Caterpillar’s chief economist had been involved with the university’s Statistics Institute and the dean of the economics department.

The Caterpillar executive selected Owens out of a catalog of graduate students because of his combined interest in economics and business.

Even though Owens already had multiple good job offers on the East Coast, he agreed to meet with Caterpillar and eventually visited the headquarters, making his first trip to the Midwest.

“I was attracted to the company because I was very impressed with the way they used professional economists to do macro-economic outlooks and econometric modeling right down to the scheduling of large capital equipment in a plant,” he says.

As a way to best leverage his graduate education, and because Caterpillar paid better, Owens took the job.

“At the time I assumed I’d be here for three or four years, learn a lot about my profession, and would move back to the East Coast again,” he says.

Free Trade Champion

One of Owens’ other passions, in addition to his work with the United Way and other charitable organizations, is championing the cause for increased global trade.

“Nationally, my big interest quite frankly is trade and globalization,” he says. “I feel very strongly about it as a professional economist, as an American, and certainly as a chairman of a major company that participates in a global economy.”

He says the United States has to win and compete in the world market in order to continue to be a great country in 2050. With only five percent of the world’s population, U.S. companies will not be able to compete in the long term by encouraging protectionist policies.

“There’s tremendous apprehension among the public, fed by and flamed by the politicians for short-term votes, which I think is a bit of a tragedy,” he says. “I think the business leadership in our country has got to speak out more forcefully and articulately about the benefits of trade, the win-win aspect of trade.”

Effective globalization also encompasses the need for a thoughtful immigration policy, which our political system seems to be fighting.

“I believe more people have been lifted out of poverty by globalization and opening markets than by the sum of all the charities by a factor of many,” he says.

As a testament to Caterpillar’s support of globalization, about half of the company’s products made in the United States are exported. Those exports accounted for $10.5 billion in 2006.

Terrific Insights

When Owens enrolled at North Carolina State, he knew several high school friends who had already joined Lambda Chi Alpha.

He says that his freshman year was a bit overwhelming, but the Fraternity helped him maintain his grades and overall gave him a “spectacular experience.”

During his sophomore year, Owens was elected social chairman, a position he held for three years.

“I knew every band in the Southeast,” he says. He also was on the executive committee and says the Fraternity experiences gave him terrific insights, advantages, and lifelong relationships.

In the middle of his undergraduate years, Owens got married and had a son, quickly shifting his priorities.

The chapter benefited from his priority shift as he even had made a more significant impact on the overall chapter GPA.

He still stays in touch with a number of brothers and sees many of them every year at an annual North Carolina State alumni football event hosted by John Kanipe (North Carolina State 1963).

Company Steward

Owens is currently 61 years old, and the company has mandatory retirement at age 65. He won’t say when his last day will be, but he knows that his job as company steward isn’t over just yet.

“I inherited a very good company and I hope to leave an even better company,” he says. “I recognize that essentially I’m the steward of the shareholders interest, and of the men and women who built this company, over the years for the five to seven years that I serve as chairman.”