Robert W. Lane (born November 14, 1949), served as chief executive officer of Deere & Company from 2000 to 2009 and retired as the chairman of the board in February 2010. He served on several boards including: The Northern Trust Company, General Electric Company, BMW AG and Verizon Communications. He was ranked 10th by Forbes Magazine's Top CEOs based on compensation in 2009.[2][3]

Robert W Lane
Lane in 2002
Born (1949-11-14) November 14, 1949 (age 74)
Alma materWheaton College
University of Chicago[1]
OccupationFormer CEO of Deere & Company
Political partyDemocratic Party
SpousePatricia[1]

Early life and career

edit

Lane was born in Washington, D.C. in 1949. He graduated with high honors from Wheaton College in Illinois in the year 1972, and he went on to receive a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business in 1974. Lane joined First National Bank of Chicago after his MBA. He served in the capacity of Vice President when he quit the job in 1982.[4][5]

Board memberships

edit

Lane served on several boards before retiring for health reasons:

Deere & Company

edit

Lane came to Deere & Company in 1982 from a commercial banking career with First National Bank of Chicago. On his first assignment at Deere, Lane was responsible for managing U.S. government and national account sales. In 1992, he joined the Worldwide Agricultural Equipment division as senior vice president where he directed equipment operations in Latin America, Australia, East Asia and South Africa.[1][5]

Lane became Chief Financial Officer of Deere in 1996, and two years later moved to Germany as Managing director where he led Deere's agricultural equipment operations in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, India and the nations of the former Soviet Union. He returned to the United States as president of the Worldwide Agricultural Equipment Division in 1999; subsequently he was elected Deere & Company's President and Chief Operating Officer. In June 2000 Lane was named president and CEO of Deere & Company, and he was elected chairman of the board the following August.[1][5][14] He was also a trustee for the Committee for Economic Development.[15]

During his tenure the revenues of the company doubled its net income to more than $2 billion.[16]

Awards

edit

References

edit
  1. ^ a b c d "John Deere US | Products & Services Information".
  2. ^ "#10 Robert W Lane". Forbes. April 22, 2009.
  3. ^ "Forbes profile". Forbes. Archived from the original on March 10, 2009.
  4. ^ a b "The Page You Are Looking for Cannot be Found". Archived from the original on May 28, 2010.
  5. ^ a b c "Robert W. Lane 1949— Biography - Rising through the ranks at deere".
  6. ^ "Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BYMOF.PK)". U.S. Retrieved March 26, 2018.
  7. ^ "BMW Group reports eighth successive record year despite high upfront expenditure - Automotive World". www.automotiveworld.com. March 8, 2018. Retrieved March 26, 2018.
  8. ^ "GE Announces Retirement of Robert Lane From Board of Directors". GE Newsroom. October 9, 2017. Retrieved March 26, 2018.
  9. ^ Keitz, Anders (February 26, 2018). "General Electric Announces Board Slate, Introduces Three Director Candidates". TheStreet. Retrieved March 26, 2018.
  10. ^ "Notice of Annual Meeting of Stockholders" (PDF). Northern Trust. April 15, 2014.
  11. ^ "Notice and Proxy Statement". www.sec.gov. Retrieved March 26, 2018.
  12. ^ "Deere & Co. Chairman and CEO Robert Lane to Join Verizon Board of Directors". www.verizon.com. January 22, 2004. Retrieved March 26, 2018.
  13. ^ "Verizon CEO resigns from GE board". www.bizjournals.com. Retrieved March 26, 2018.
  14. ^ "Deere Promotes President to Chief Executive". The New York Times. June 2, 2000.
  15. ^ "Deere CEO fields editors' questions". The Courier. Waterloo, Iowa. August 22, 2004. p. 1. Retrieved June 7, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ^ "Business Symposium at Windsor Park to Focus on 'Corporations, Capitalism and Christianity'". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved March 26, 2018.
  17. ^ "Bridge Award Profiles: Robert W. Lane - Chicago United".
  18. ^ "Laureates by Year - The Lincoln Academy of Illinois". The Lincoln Academy of Illinois. Retrieved March 4, 2016.
edit