Staffordshire excavator manufacturer JCB has announced that its chief operating officer Matthew Taylor is to become its new chief executive, in succession to John Patterson.
Mr Patterson, who is 58, will continue as chairman and chief executive of the company’s US operation and will remain of the main board.
JCB chairman Sir Anthony Bamford said: “John Patterson has led the JCB Group through one of the most successful periods in our history and I’m pleased that he will now focus his attention on our American business based in Savannah.
“The JCB Group is facing some difficult challenges as we enter a period of economic uncertainty but I look forward to the next phase of our growth and development and these changes will help drive that.”
Mr Patterson joined JCB in 1971 as a field service engineer and rose through the company’s ranks to become chief executive in 1998. He was promoted to managing director and chief executive in 2004. Under his leadership, JCB’s business has doubled in the past four years and the company has undergone the biggest global expansion in its history with new manufacturing facilities brought on line in the USA, Brazil, India, China and Germany.
After leaving the Royal Navy in 1985, Matthew Taylor joined Ford, rising to become managing director of Ford of Spain and later vice-president of marketing and sales in Australia. He returned to the UK when Ford bought Land Rover in 2000, and became sales and marketing Director.
In 2002, following the business merger of Land Rover and Jaguar, Mr Taylor gained responsibility for sales and marketing for Jaguar. He was made managing director of Land Rover in 2003, a position he held until he joined JCB.
