Cummins Promotes Jennifer Rumsey To CEO As Diesel Giant Seeks Cleantech Overhaul

The biggest maker of diesel engines for vehicles and heavy-obligation motor vehicles wants to be a key participant in a increasing worldwide sector for clean electrical and hydrogen-fueled industrial automobiles. Foremost that cost likely forward will be its new CEO, Jennifer Rumsey, who is succeeding extended-time chief Tom Linebarger in the function.

Rumsey, at the moment president and COO of the Columbus, Indiana-based maker, begins her new work on Aug. 1. She’ll be the first girl to direct Cummins considering that its founding in 1919 and just its seventh CEO in in excess of a century. Linebarger, who’s led the corporation considering the fact that 2012, will turn out to be govt chairman and also stay board chairman.

All through his ten years working Cummins and even prior to that, Linebarger began hunting outside of the company’s core diesel organization. Amid other issues, he established its New Electrical power division that’s centered on commercializing battery, hybrid and hydrogen fuel mobile programs for trucks, trains and other hefty cars. Rumsey, 48, worked carefully with him on that and intends to continue the change to items that deliver much fewer weather-warming emissions.

“This changeover is not heading to be simple. There is certainly even now substantial improvement in some of these technologies wanted to be practical for our applications–the systems that can get you all the way to zero,” Rumsey tells Forbes. For battery and hydrogen units in distinct, “a sizeable infrastructure build-out has to arise,” she reported.

An Indiana indigenous, Rumsey has worked for Cummins since 2000, after paying out a 12 months as a group leader performing on hydrogen gas cells for Nuvera. She holds degrees in mechanical engineering from Indiana’s Purdue University and Massachusetts Institute of Engineering.

In getting on this new part, Rumsey joins Common Motors’ Mary Barra as just one of the handful of worldwide industrial providers to be led by a female. And like Barra, who’s pushing GM to become a major vendor of zero-emission passenger vehicles, she would like to posture Cummins to see the kind of dominance in electric powered and hydrogen units it’s obtained in diesel.

The enterprise sells about 1 million engines yearly, primarily diesel, that energy vans, boats, trains, mining tools, army motor vehicles and turbines. Cummins had web income of $2.1 billion very last yr on product sales of $24 billion. Of that whole, its New Power unit contributed just $108 million of profits in 2021. The organization is to release 2nd-quarter and first-half earnings results on Aug. 2.

Cummins is also completing a $3.7 billion acquisition of automotive factors maker Meritor declared early this 12 months and there may be much more discounts to come, Rumsey stated, devoid of identifying possible targets.

“We’re continuing to appraise other acquisitions that make sense to fill in some of the key know-how that we may well require,” she claimed. “We’ll do acquisitions when and if they make perception.”

Linebarger stated Rumsey was critical to controlling Cummin’s international operations as COO, notably in the previous yr as supply chain snags and larger commodity charges became massive headaches, and is well-suited to operate issues likely ahead.

(For extra on Linebarger and Cummins, see: How Diesel Big Cummins Could Conquer Tesla In The Environmentally friendly Engine Battle)

“Jen is a once-in-a-era expertise and the ideal leader for Cummins,” Linebarger claimed in a webcast. “She’s been my companion in acquiring the Destination Zero technique, which sets out how the decarbonization of our business will be a significant growth possibility for Cummins.”

The company’s shares fell 1.8{09e594db938380acbda72fd0ffbcd1ef1c99380160786adb3aba3c50c4545157} on Thursday to $196.09 in New York.