As previously reported, Graeme Macdonald took over from Alan Bake on 1st January as group chief executive.
At the same time John Patterson, chairman and CEO of JCB in North America, is also retiring after 43 years’ service and has been succeeded by Arjun Mirdha as president and CEO.
Arjun Mirdha took up his new role from 1st January 2014 and reports directly to Graeme Macdonald.
The retirement of Alan Blake, after 25 years with JCB, and John Patterson, a 43-year JCB veteran, marks a changing of the guard at JCB.
John Patterson joined JCB in 1971 and went on to work in Canada and America before returning to the UK in 1988 as managing director of JCB Service. In 1993, he was appointed managing director of JCB Sales before becoming group CEO – only the third person in JCB’s history to hold the position, after father and son Joe and Anthony Bamford.
He moved to the USA in 2008 and was succeeded in the UK firstly by Matthew Taylor and then in 2010 by Alan Blake.
Alan Blake had joined JCB Transmissions in Wrexham in 1989 as operations director with responsibility for developing new transmissions for JCB’s backhoe loader and Loadall telescopic handler.
In 1995 he was promoted to managing director of JCB Transmissions and in 2000 became managing director of JCB Service. In 2003 he became group manufacturing director and then chief operating officer in 2009 before becoming chief executive.
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