Mike Wolanin | The Republic Jennifer Rumsey gives a speech as the new President and CEO of Cummins Inc., during a press conference at the Cummins Corporate Office Building in Columbus, Ind., Thursday, July 14, 2022. Rumsey is the first woman CEO since the company was founded over 100 years ago.
The new chief executive officer of Cummins, Inc. received a standing ovation from a crowd of city and state officials, employees and family at corporate headquarters Thursday, a very Columbus moment for a home-grown engineering talent named the company’s first female CEO in more than 100 years.
Jennifer Rumsey was introduced by Tom Linebarger, current Cummins chairman and CEO, with an emotional tribute, saying he was really proud to leave the company stronger than he found it, and in the hands of Rumsey, who he described as a principled, caring leader who consistently has delivered outstanding results in good times and in challenging times.
Company spokesman Jon Mills described the announcement as a historic moment for the Columbus-based company and “truly a tremendous day for Cummins.”
While Linebarger is stepping away as CEO, he will remain as company chairman of the board and in the role of executive chairman, to finish up some of the initiatives that are ongoing. Those include completing an acquisition of Meritor and continuing work to reach the environmental sustainability strategy goals for “PLANET 2050,” an effort to combat climate change and conserve natural resources to achieve carbon neutrality by mid-century.
As one of the world’s leading suppliers of diesel engines, Cummins’ environmental footprint is evolving to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the company’s facilities and operations, reduce water consumption and focusing on recycling.
But putting all those big challenges aside, Thursday’s announcement was very much people-focused, as Rumsey noted that she could not look toward family members, including her daughter Katherine in the audience, as the emotions might be too much.
And Linebarger, in his opening remarks, after noting that he had no regrets about his choice to step back from the CEO role and that this was the time and place for Rumsey to take over, also said he will miss the relationships that have come from his work at Cummins over the years.
“Every relationship in this company — I have cherished,” he said. “The thing I will miss most of all will be all of you.”
Linebarger referred to Rumsey as a “once in a generation talent” and said he knew she would be CEO before she did.
He allowed that he’d been working on a succession plan since the first day he started at Cummins, part of his goal of leaving the company better when he left, something he described as part of the company’s DNA.
Describing Rumsey’s technical expertise, business acumen and ability to get results, Linebarger said, “I knew Jen should be CEO before she knew.”
Even then, Linebarger said, Rumsey wasn’t sure.
“I reminded her of this day,” he said, adding that there would be the first woman engineer as Cummins’ CEO and “there won’t be a dry eye in the house.”
Rumsey noted she has been focused on three things that have shaped her career — purpose, people and impact — and those three will continue to inform how she plans to lead the company in the future.
Noting she started her engineering career at a fuel cell startup before moving to Cummins, she said she realized she could make a bigger difference in the world as a leader at Cummins.
Stressing the importance of reducing the carbon footprint for the company, Rumsey said she had two daughters — one studying engineering at Purdue and another planning to study engineering there — and she wants to protect the planet for the next generation.
She honored four people, three who were at the ceremony, who she said nurtured her potential and brought her to the CEO position: Linebarger, her mother, Suellen Gillespie, her husband, Jim, and Cummins’ former Chief Technical Officer John Wall, who Rumsey replaced in 2016.
She said Wall spotted her as someone with engineering promise when she was in high school and inspired her to study engineering.
Gillespie described her daughter as someone who invests wholeheartedly in whatever she is doing and attributed much of her success to her people skills and her ability to lead, attributing a portion of that to growing up in the atmosphere of Columbus.
As the family gathered around her for photos after the presentation, they waved to Linebarger to join the photo session, and he joined them, putting his arm around Rumsey’s mother and smiling for the camera.
Earlier in the event, Rumsey made a point to ask the crowd to thank Linebarger for his service to Cummins.
“I want to especially thank Tom and take another moment to acknowledge his tremendous leadership for the past 11 years,” she said. “And I want to thank Tom for the investment he made in me.”
