ATI Inc. will promote Kimberly Fields to CEO, replacing the executive who relocated its headquarters from Pittsburgh to Dallas in 2022.
Mr. Fields, 54, has been chief operating officer of the publicly traded specialty metals company since 2022 and president since July of last year. He will take over as CEO from July 1st, succeeding Robert Weatherby.
Weatherbee, who has served as CEO since 2018, will become executive chairman of the company's board of directors. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, he shifted the company's focus to more profitable products, with the bulk of its revenue coming from specialty materials and metal alloys for aerospace and industrial use. I aimed.
Part of that transformation included pursuing major companies in the aerospace, defense and petroleum industries and relocating ATI's corporate headquarters staff to the McKinney & Olive high-rise office tower in Dallas' Uptown district.
Weatherby takes over as CEO after ATI just reported strong 2023 financial results with sales up 9% to $4.17 billion and profits up 27% to just under $411 million. will be retiring.
“ATI is well-positioned and on a clear path to $5 billion in sales and $1 billion in sales. [pre-tax profits] by 2027,” he said in a statement. “Mr. Kim is ready to lead this organization. As ATI's next CEO, he will continue to accelerate our company's growth and value creation.”
Mr. Fields joined ATI in 2019 as Executive Vice President of the Flat Roll Products Group. He previously served as group president of IDEX Corp.'s industrial and energy division, where he dramatically improved profitability and accelerated the growth of the business portfolio, according to ATI.
She also helped expand General Electric's penetration into the metals, petrochemicals, and mining sectors. She earned her bachelor's degree in ceramic engineering from the University of Illinois and her MBA from Northwestern University.
“I am honored to succeed Bob as ATI’s next CEO,” said Fields. “Together, we have built a team that is aligned, disciplined and focused on execution to deliver exceptional solutions to our customers' toughest challenges.”
This is the third major leadership change at the North Texas company this week.
Mark Jones, co-founder of Westlake-based Goosehead Insurance, will step down as CEO and hand over the reins to Mark Miller, the company's No. 2 executive. Global architecture firm HKS Inc. has split the roles of CEO and president, with Dan Noble becoming his CEO and chairman and CFO Sam Mudlo adding the title of president.
ATI also outlined new compensation packages for Fields and Weatherbee in a regulatory filing on Friday.
Fields' base salary is $900,000, with potential stock awards of $750,000 and performance bonuses of $1.125 million, according to the filing. In 2025, she will receive her restricted stock award worth $3.5 million.
Mr. Weatherbee's base salary as executive chairman is $750,000, with a potential performance bonus of $1.125 million. His total salary in 2023 was $10,996,223.
Before moving to Dallas, ATI was known as Allegheny Technologies, and its parent company patented and commercialized stainless steel in the United States.
