Deere & Co. today announced a series of changes to its leadership team in response to the planned retirement of a member of senior management later this year.

“We are taking this opportunity to realign the senior management team to improve efficiency, further develop leadership talent, and more effectively align the organization in support of the company’s business strategy,” said Samuel Allen, chairman and CEO. 

Effective Nov. 15, Max Guinn will retire as president of the Worldwide Construction & Forestry Division. Succeeding him will be James Field, who had been a president in Deere’s Agriculture & Turf Division. Field has an extensive background in finance and operations and in his new role will focus on sustainable, profitable growth around the globe as well as the continued integration of the Wirtgen Group, the company said.

Other changes, all effective Nov. 15, include: 

• John May is appointed president, Worldwide Agriculture & Turf Division – Global Harvesting and Turf Platforms, Ag Solutions, Americas and Australia. He will assume leadership responsibilities for the Agriculture & Turf Division in the Americas and the crop harvesting and turf platforms while continuing to lead the crop care platform and Intelligent Solutions Group. He has had primary responsibility for the company’s precision-agriculture strategy since 2012.
• Mark von Pentz is appointed president, Worldwide Agriculture & Turf Division, Global Tractor and Hay & Forage Platforms, Europe, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Asia, Africa. Von Pentz will add Deere’s hay and forage product platform to his existing duties of leading the company’s tractor platform and for Europe, the CIS, Asia and Africa. Combining the hay and forage and tractor platforms reinforces Deere’s commitment to ongoing worldwide growth.
• Raj Kalathur is appointed senior vice president, chief financial officer and chief information officer. Kalathur will continue in his role as CFO and assume responsibility for the company’s information and technology function – a move to help position information technology as a strategic competitive advantage for Deere.

Guinn is retiring after 38 years at Deere. After joining the company as an engineer in 1980, his career included a variety of management and leadership assignments. He has been president of Worldwide Construction & Forestry since October 2014 and directed the 2017 acquisition of the Wirtgen Group, the world leader in road building equipment. It was the company’s largest acquisition and a move that added global scale to its construction equipment business.