Textron Names Ted French Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
29 November 2000
Textron Names Ted French Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
PROVIDENCE, R.I.--Nov. 29, 2000--Textron Inc. today announced that Ted French will be joining the company as executive vice president and chief financial officer. He succeeds Stephen Key, who is retiring from Textron.French joins Textron from CNH Global N.V. , an $11 billion leader in the agricultural equipment, construction equipment and financial services industries created through the 1999 merger of Case Corporation and New Holland N.V. French most recently served as president, financial services and chief financial officer for CNH and spent 10 years at Case Corporation prior to the merger.
As Textron's CFO, French will oversee all global finance functions, including controllers, internal audit, tax and treasury. He will also lead Textron's company-wide mergers and acquisitions function. French will become a member of the company's Executive Leadership Team and Management Committee. He reports to Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Lewis B. Campbell.
"I am very pleased to add an executive of Ted's caliber to Textron's senior management team. With his demonstrated leadership and extensive experience, Ted will contribute greatly to the success of Textron as we continue to sharpen our focus on enterprise excellence and return on invested capital (ROIC)," said Campbell.
"Additionally, I would like to recognize the outstanding service of Steve Key," said Campbell. "During his five years at Textron, Steve has added tremendous rigor and focus to our financial processes and led the development of a more strategic, systematic approach to Textron's mergers and acquisition process. More recently, Steve's leadership has led us to focus on ROIC as a platform for accelerated value creation. We wish him the very best in the future."
Prior to the Case/New Holland merger, French served as president, financial services and chief financial officer of Case Corporation, a position he held since January 1992. From 1992-1994, he was also treasurer of Case. He joined Case in 1989 as vice president of corporate planning and development, where he led the development of the company's business strategy and restructuring programs.
Before joining Case, French spent 12 years with Rockwell International in a variety of finance, operations, strategic planning and corporate development positions, including director of business development for Rockwell Automotive.
French holds a master's degree in business administration and a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Georgia. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Advisory Committee of the U.S. Export-Import Bank (EXIM) and the Editorial Advisory Board of CFO magazine.
Textron Inc. is an $11.6 billion, global multi-industry company with market-leading businesses serving the Aircraft, Automotive, Industrial and Commercial Finance industries. Textron has a workforce of over 68,000 employees and major manufacturing facilities in 30 countries. Textron is among Fortune magazine's "Global Most Admired Companies." Additional information is available at www.textron.com.