Top 10 manufacturing leaders of 2023
McKeen is Technical Director at Dow MobilityScience, a chemical manufacturer, where he’s worked since 2009. He works with prospective customers and across Dow’s Research & Development functions, to maintain focus on key challenges and areas that will advance the future of mobility.
McKeen was led to the industry due to his interest in scientific and engineering principles and wanting to deliver things that society cares about: better infrastructure and non-fossil-fuel-based energy.
“Dow MobilityScience helps to achieve balance and provide innovative solutions that make vehicles safer, longer-lasting, more connected, efficient, and profitable for manufacturers.”
Read more here.
Medical equipment manufacturing company Medtronic has a goal to ‘contribute to human welfare by application of biomedical engineering’. The company conducts its own research, designing, manufacturing and sales to ‘alleviate pain and restore health’. The US$32bn company now has 95,000 employees, with Geoff Martha working as Chairman of the Board Of Directors and CEO.
"I feel truly honoured to be part of a long legacy of strong and inspiring leaders at Medtronic," said Martha after his appointment to Chairman of the Board. He praised Omar Ishrak who had announced his retirement from Chairman of its Board of Directors.
Martha studied Finance from 1989 to 1992 at Penn State University. He led the Penn State Ice Hockey team as its Captain, which he credits for teaching him about leadership.
Read the full article here.
At Rockwell Automation, the mission is to accelerate the quality of life through more efficient production, smart manufacturing and sustainable options.
Blake Moret became the President and Chief Executive Officer of Rockwell Automation in 2016. In his role, he leads productivity and sustainable initiatives across the biggest industrial automation and information company in the world.
Moret’s vision for one project, The Connected Enterprise, is to use information to assist industrial companies in their productivity. “Manufacturers are looking for new ways to leverage technology to reduce their environmental footprints,” says Moret.
Read the full article here.
Mary Barra is Chair and CEO of General Motors. She aims to advance the customer experience and embolden GM’s core vehicle and services business, in addition to leading the mobility evolution through advanced technologies such as electrification and autonomous driving.
Barra took on several roles at GM on her way up to CEO. In 2011, she became Senior Vice President, Global Product Development. In 2013, Barra was promoted to GM’s Executive Vice President, Global Product Development, Purchasing and Supply Chain.
GM is proud to be leading equal representation from an executive level and will welcome the day when female leadership is the norm. Barra is a founding member of GM’s Inclusion Advisory Board, on which she serves as the Chair.
Read the full article here.
Chuck Robbins is the CEO of Cisco Systems, a multinational technology leader, specialising in networking hardware, software and telecommunications equipment.
“I joined Cisco because I wanted to be a part of a company where I believed the possibilities were limitless,” Robbins said.
Robbins joined Cisco in 1997. Before becoming CEO, he held various leadership positions within Cisco, including Senior Vice President of Worldwide Field Operations and Senior Vice President of the Americas, where he worked on Cisco's global sales and go-to-market strategy.
Read the full article here.
D. James Umpleby III, known as Jim, is the Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer of Caterpillar Inc.
Umpleby studied mechanical engineering at the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, where he earned a Bachelor’s degree. He later completed an executive leadership program at the International Institute for Management Development, in Switzerland.
Now, Umpleby leads a team of over 109,100 employees across 63 countries and is responsible for the company’s strategy for profitable growth and its execution, which focuses on ‘operational excellence, expanded offerings, services and sustainability and driving positive change on every continent’.
Now, Umpleby is leading the company in a sustainable direction - here, we take an in depth look at his career and what’s next.
Read the full article here.
Kanti is the Co-founder and President of Sirion, a pioneering contract lifecycle management (CLM) company that fuses large language models used by the likes of ChatGPT and best-in-class legal AI to revolutionise how contracts are created, negotiated and managed. As a founding member on the executive team, Prabha is involved in guiding the product’s evolution, leading research and development around legal AI, and exploring its many applications and use cases within the CLM domain.
Today, Sirion is used by more than 250 of the world’s most valuable companies in 70+ countries, to manage 5mn+ contracts worth upwards of US$450bn with a common goal: to build risk-free, value-driven, highly efficient contracts.
Read the full article here.
As the EY Industrial Products Leader for the Americas, Legan's responsibilities include helping companies navigate the technology, business, and people aspects of their businesses to make informed, confident decisions that deliver measurable business advantages.
“With the advent of Industry 4.0 (e.g., connected products, AI and machine learning) the industrial manufacturing industry is arguably experiencing the most change it has seen in decades. Given the current geopolitical and economic turbulence, industrial manufacturing companies must also overcome more immediate challenges such as increasing material costs, supply chain uncertainty, sustainability and ESG imperatives, and increased competition to attract and retain a changing workforce."
To survive, and thrive, legan believs that companies must figure out how to improve operating efficiency and contain costs while maximising the return on innovation investments that will define their future.
"To this end, I work with clients and Ecosystem Alliance partners to accelerate the progression from strategy to execution, avoid proof-of-concept purgatory, and create innovation from invention.”
Read the full interview here.
Comau is a world leader in the development of advanced systems and products for industrial automation. It helps companies of all sizes and industry segments to harness the potential of digital manufacturing by combining innovative engineering solutions with enabling technologies and 'open', easy-to-use automation.
Piscioneri has always had a passion for industrial automation and software development. During his studies, where he received a degree in Computer Engineering from the Turin Polytechnic, Piscioneri was fascinated by the world of robotics and automation. In the following years, he had the opportunity to join Comau and pursue a second Master's degree in Industrial Automation, also at the Polytechnic of Turin.
“Comau is working to develop a proprietary portfolio of solutions that can automate key manufacturing steps, including cell preparation, stacking, compression, welding, leak testing and more. This will enable energy suppliers to scale production volumes while increasing the quality of the high-precision process.”
Read the full interview here.
1. Coen Huesmann
Vice President Manufacturing
CGI
Coen Huesmann leads the manufacturing team at global IT and Consulting company CGI.
“I lead CGI’s manufacturing team in the Netherlands,” he told Manufacturing Digital in an exclusive interview. “We help our clients to improve their manufacturing processes, so we're in the heart of the factory, helping to select and implement and support systems in manufacturing.”
CGI helps its clients to select and implement these systems and provides them with their 24/7 support.
“We help to run the factory and we improve things for our customers based on data. Most of our clients are in digitisation programmes, so we help to digitise the manufacturing processes and make them increasingly mature,” Huesmann adds.
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Other magazines that may be of interest - Healthcare Digital.
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