Former AT&T Executive Joins Caterpillar's Board of Directors

PEORIA, Ill., April 12, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Caterpillar Inc. CAT announced today that Ray Wilkins has been elected to the Caterpillar board of directors effective immediately.

Wilkins, 65, retired as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Diversified Businesses at AT&T Inc. in 2012 after serving in that role since 2008. Prior to that, he held several leadership roles in his more than 30-year career at AT&T and its predecessor companies. He serves on the boards of two other large, publicly traded companies - Morgan Stanley and Valero Energy Corporation.

"Ray is an impressive businessman with deep experience in the information technology and communications disciplines," said Caterpillar Chairman Dave Calhoun. "He also brings a broad range of leadership and global business experiences that will complement the board, and I look forward to joining him in the boardroom."

Wilkins joins 12 other members on Caterpillar's board of directors and will be named to committees at a later date.

About Caterpillar
For more than 90 years, Caterpillar Inc. has been making sustainable progress possible and driving positive change on every continent. Customers turn to Caterpillar to help them develop infrastructure, energy and natural resource assets. With 2016 sales and revenues of $38.537 billion, Caterpillar is the world's leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines and diesel-electric locomotives. The company principally operates through its three product segments - Construction Industries, Resource Industries and Energy & Transportation - and also provides financing and related services through its Financial Products segment. For more information, visit caterpillar.com. To connect with us on social media, visit caterpillar.com/social-media.

Forward-looking Statements
Certain statements in this press release relate to future events and expectations and are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "believe," "estimate," "will be," "will," "would," "expect," "anticipate," "plan," "project," "intend," "could," "should" or other similar words or expressions often identify forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements regarding our outlook, projections, forecasts or trend descriptions. These statements do not guarantee future performance and speak only as of the date they are made, and we do not undertake to update our forward-looking statements. 

Caterpillar's actual results may differ materially from those described or implied in our forward-looking statements based on a number of factors, including, but not limited to: (i) global and regional economic conditions and economic conditions in the industries we serve; (ii) commodity price changes, material price increases, fluctuations in demand for our products or significant shortages of material; (iii) government monetary or fiscal policies; (iv) political and economic risks, commercial instability and events beyond our control in the countries in which we operate; (v) our ability to develop, produce and market quality products that meet our customers' needs; (vi) the impact of the highly competitive environment in which we operate on our sales and pricing; (vii) information technology security threats and computer crime; (viii) additional restructuring costs or a failure to realize anticipated savings or benefits from past or future cost reduction actions; (ix) failure to realize all of the anticipated benefits from initiatives to increase our productivity, efficiency and cash flow and to reduce costs; (x) inventory management decisions and sourcing practices of our dealers and our OEM customers; (xi) a failure to realize, or a delay in realizing, all of the anticipated benefits of our acquisitions, joint ventures or divestitures; (xii) union disputes or other employee relations issues; (xiii) adverse effects of unexpected events including natural disasters; (xiv) disruptions or volatility in global financial markets limiting our sources of liquidity or the liquidity of our customers, dealers and suppliers; (xv) failure to maintain our credit ratings and potential resulting increases to our cost of borrowing and adverse effects on our cost of funds, liquidity, competitive position and access to capital markets; (xvi) our Financial Products segment's risks associated with the financial services industry; (xvii) changes in interest rates or market liquidity conditions; (xviii) an increase in delinquencies, repossessions or net losses of Cat Financial's customers; (xix) currency fluctuations; (xx) our or Cat Financial's compliance with financial and other restrictive covenants in debt agreements; (xxi) increased pension plan funding obligations; (xxii) alleged or actual violations of trade or anti-corruption laws and regulations; (xxiii) international trade policies and their impact on demand for our products and our competitive position; (xxiv) additional tax expense or exposure; (xxv) significant legal proceedings, claims, lawsuits or government investigations; (xxvi) new regulations or changes in financial services regulations; (xxvii) compliance with environmental laws and regulations; and (xxviii) other factors described in more detail in Caterpillar's Forms 10-Q, 10-K and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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SOURCE Caterpillar Inc.