Cargotec Appoints New Head of MacGregor Business Area

Eric A. Nielsen, BSc, Mechanical Engineering, MBA (b. 1959) has been appointed President of the MacGregor business area as of 16 September 2013. He will be a member of the Executive Board and reports to President and CEO Mika Vehviläinen.

Eric A. Nielsen has most recently held the position as Executive Vice President of Corporate Development for Joy Global Inc., a supplier of large scale mining equipment. He was responsible for the company’s mergers and acquisitions and strategic planning activities.

Before joining Joy Global Inc., Eric has held different senior executive positions in Terex Corporation and Volvo Construction Equipment. During his career in Volvo he steered the significant growth of the Volvo Excavators business unit, overseeing global marketing, R&D and manufacturing activities with major operations in Korea, China, Germany and the United States.

“MacGregor is heading towards new challenges, and it is time to bring in new executive management to accelerate the growth and renewal. Eric has a strong track record within global machinery and engineering as well as in enhancing performance and growing business. His international background and experience in Scandinavian and Asian business world demonstrate his excellent capabilities to respond to changing customer demands,” states Cargotec’s President and CEO Mika Vehviläinen.

“MacGregor is a market leader in marine business and has a determined focus to proactively respond to the needs and expectations of the customers. I am very excited to join the MacGregor team and work together with the talented and dedicated members of our global organisation. I strongly believe that there are opportunities and new innovations that will take our performance to even higher level,” says Eric A. Nielsen.

“Mikael Mäkinen has headed the preparations to list MacGregor to the Singapore Exchange and to drive the consolidation of the industry, and he has succeeded well in executing these plans. As per his own decision not to move to Singapore, as the listing would require, Mikael will leave his current position as President of MacGregor on 15 September. He will report to the new President during the transition period. The Board of Directors and I thank Mikael for his dedication in developing Cargotec and its business areas into global market leaders. We all wish him every success in the future,” says Mika Vehviläinen.

Cargotec, September 13, 2013