JLG gets new president as Wilson Jones is promoted

Wilson Jones, president of JLG Industries, has been promoted to president and chief operating officer of JLG's parent company, Oshkosh Corp. He will be succeeded at JLG by Frank Nerenhausen, currently president of Oshkosh's Commercial division, which includes the McNeilus concrete truck and ITM loader crane businesses.

Mr Jones has led the Access division at Oshkosh since 2010 - when he took over from Craig Paylor - and will now be number two to Charlie Szews, Oshkosh chief executive officer, to whom he will report when he takes up his new post on 1 August.

The new president of JLG, Mr Nerenhausen, who remains an Oshkosh executive vice president, has a 26 year career with Oshkosh and has been president of the Commercial division since 2010. The commercial division is the smallest of Oshkosh's four divisions, with revenues of US$564.9 million in the year to September 2011, which compares to the $2 billion reported by JLG Industries.

Oshkosh said Mr Nerenhausen had been a "driving force in improving the operational efficiencies of the Commercial segment, promoting compressed natural gas powered vehicle initiatives and leading this segment to profitability in spite of extremely low industry volumes."

Oshkosh said that in his new job Wilson Jones will lead all aspects of the Access Equipment, Fire & Emergency and Commercial segments, along with its Asian operations, reporting to Mr Szews.

Over time, Mr Jones will "assume greater responsibilities including oversight of the Defense segment and certain corporate functions", said Oshkosh. Wilson Jones joined Oshkosh in 2005 and was president of the Fire & Emergency division before assuming control at JLG.

Charlie Szews said; "Wilson Jones has been an outstanding addition to our organisation, championing change and pursuing sustainable growth opportunities to build upon our market leading positions and create value for our shareholders."

Sales at JLG for full year fiscal 2012 (to the end of September) are expected to be up 35 to 40% over fiscal 2011 totals.

Replacing Frank Nerenhausen as president of the Commercial division is Todd Fierro, who joined McNeilus in 2011 as vice president of operations. He has held key manufacturing positions at several companies including Ford Motor Company.