JAMES W. OWENS

Jim Owens is chairman and chief executive officer of Caterpillar Inc. in Peoria, Ill. After joining the company in 1972 as a corporate economist, he has held numerous management positions.

Owens was named chief economist of Caterpillar Overseas S.A. in Geneva, Switzerland in 1975. From 1980 until 1987 he held managerial positions in Peoria in the Accounting and Product Source Planning Departments. In 1987 he 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, Calif. 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 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, a native of Elizabeth City, N.C., graduated from North Carolina State University in 1973 with a Ph.D. in economics.

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 in Washington D.C. and the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. He is Chairman of the Business Council, a member the Business Roundtable and the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board in Washington D.C. He is also a member of the board of trustees for North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina.

About Caterpillar Inc.
For more than 85 years, Caterpillar Inc. has been making progress possible and driving positive and sustainable change on every continent. With 2009 sales and revenues of $32.396 billion, Caterpillar is the world's leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines and industrial gas turbines. The company also is a leading services provider through Caterpillar Financial Services, Caterpillar Remanufacturing Services, Caterpillar Logistics Services and Progress Rail Services. More information is available at www.cat.com.