Clayton New Textron Fastening Systems President

John Wolz

Textron Inc. named Richard Clayton president of its $1.6 billion Textron Fastening Systems business, succeeding Joachim �Jake� Hirsch. Clayton will report to Textron COO Steven Loranger.\
Hirsch, president since July 2000, is pursuing other interests.
For the past 16 months Clayton has been president of Textron�s $1.6 billion Industrial Components segment, overseeing Textron Power Transmission, Textron Fluid Handling Products, and Kautex, maker of plastic fuel tank systems.
Prior to joining Textron in February 2002 Clayton spent more than 18 years in a variety of management positions at Dana Corporation, most recently as president of Dana�s commercial vehicle systems business. Before joining Dana, he held various positions with Warner Electric Company, which was acquired by Dana.
�Rick has demonstrated outstanding leadership as president of our Industrial Components segment. His expertise and energy will be tremendous assets to Textron Fastening Systems as it continues to reposition itself to achieve greater efficiencies and industry competitiveness,� commented Loranger.
Hirsch, a native of Germany, had succeeded Jack Sights.
�Jake has done an excellent job leading TFS through major change,� remarked Loranger. �Since he took the helm three years ago, TFS has gone through a major restructuring and has reoriented its global operations and organization to achieve a more unified approach to delivering value-added solutions to customers.�
The parent corporation also announced organizational changes, including consolidation of its Industrial Components and Industrial Products segments. Loranger will head the new combined Industrial segment in addition to his other operating responsibilities.
�Textron has set aggressive targets to improve its operating performance. By having more of our businesses report directly to me, we are eliminating staff costs while accelerating our communications and decision-making processes,� said Loranger.
The new structure eliminates two segment president positions and their support staffs.
Troy, MI-based Textron Fastening Systems, a business unit of Textron Inc., supplies engineered fastening systems, automated assembly system and fastener management and application engineering services. The fastening division has 11,000 employees at 80 locations in 17 countries.
Textron is an $11 billion multi-industry company with 49,000 employees in 40 countries. Textron brands include Bell Helicopter, Cessna Aircraft, Kautex, Lycoming, E-Z-GO and Greenlee, among others. �2003 FastenerNews.com