Caterpillar CFO, global mining president to retire

Lynn McPheeters, Caterpillar vice president and financial officer, and Richard Benson, the company’s global mining president, will retire Feb. 1. David Burritt, Caterpillar’s comptroller since 2002, will take the place of McPheeters, who has worked for Caterpillar forty years. McPheeters held a variety of financial posts in the United States and abroad before being named vice president and CFO in 1998. Benson joined Caterpillar in 1970 in the economics department and became chief economist for Europe in 1972. He was elected a company vice president in 1989 when he assumed responsibility for the company’s lift truck subsidiary, and he became president of global mining in 2000. Christopher Curfman, currently alliance relationship manager for the global mining division, will replace Benson. Curfman began working for Caterpillar in 1994, after nearly 20 years of marketing experience with a Caterpillar dealer and another equipment manufacturer. Burritt has worked for Caterpillar since 1978 in accounting, tax and financial reporting roles, including business manager for Cat Belgium and general manager of strategic and business services for Europe, Africa and the Middle East.