Caterpillar names Doug Oberhelman Vice Chairman and CEO – Elect

The Board of Directors of Caterpillar Inc. elected Douglas R. Oberhelman to the offices of Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer - Elect, effective January 1, 2010. Oberhelman, 56, currently serves as Group President of Caterpillar with responsibility for the company's engine and gas turbine businesses, human services, rail services and remanufacturing divisions. As Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer - Elect, Oberhelman will take on the additional responsibilities of managing the leadership transition and updating the company's strategy.  

Announcing
the succession plan at this time allows Oberhelman to concentrate on aligning
resources for the future and defining critical success factors for Caterpillar’s
leadership going forward. He will serve as Vice Chairman and Chief Executive
Officer – Elect until the June 2010 Caterpillar Board of Directors meeting, at
which time he will be elected Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board
of Directors, succeeding James W. Owens, 63.

Owens
will continue to serve as Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer
until July 1, 2010. He will remain as Chairman of the Board through October 31,
2010, when he will retire in accordance with the company’s long-standing
mandatory retirement policy and be succeeded by Oberhelman at that time.