Global power generation company Cummins said that Mary Chandler, vice president of corporate responsibility and community relations and CEO of the Cummins Foundation, is retiring later this spring and Jim Schacht, currently a member of the corporate responsibility leadership team, will succeed her and be promoted to vice president of Cummins.
“Cummins has a rich legacy of leadership and dedication to the civil rights, advancement and prosperity of people living and working in our communities, and Mary has furthered that legacy and led our efforts to fulfill our commitments to our communities,” said Jennifer Rumsey, Cummins president and CEO. “In particular, Mary significantly advanced our global strategic community priorities and programs. Over the course of her 12 years, she led the creation of four strategic community programs focused on Cummins’ global priority areas: Cummins TEC: Technical Education for Communities; Cummins Powers Women; Cummins Advocating for Racial Equity (CARE); and Cummins Water Works. Together, these programs have created and continue to result in immense change in our global communities for less-advantaged populations.”
Chandler joined Cummins in 2011 after a successful first career as a partner in an Indianapolis law firm. After leaving her law practice in 2003 to focus on her family, she received her MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Knowing the active and influential role Cummins plays as a corporate citizen, she came to Cummins to apply her focus on solving complex global community challenges.
Cummins, its employees and communities have greatly benefited from Chandler’s leadership and passion, according to Tom Linebarger, Rumsey’s predecessor and current executive chairman.
“Mary has been an outstanding corporate responsibility leader for Cummins,” Linebarger said. “At Cummins, we have always had the vision to be as capable in serving our communities as we are in serving our customers and our shareholders. Mary was the leader who put in place the strategy and organization to ensure we fulfilled that vision. The impact she and her team had, along with thousands of Cummins employees, helped to make Cummins one of the best companies in the world for which to work.”
Schacht will succeed Chandler as both VP of corporate responsibility and community relations and CEO of the Cummins Foundation on April 1.
For the past three years, Schacht has served on Chandler’s leadership team as executive director of North America Corporate Responsibility. During Schacht’s time on the corporate responsibility leadership team, he led efforts to determine how Cummins can make the most impact with its PLANET 2050 strategy to tackle climate change. His work and findings resulted in the creation of Cummins Water Works. Through strategic partnerships and investments with organizations including The Nature Conservancy, Water.org and Hennops Revival, the initiative has already helped more than half a million people and supported crucial infrastructure improvement projects around the world. In his role, Schacht also helped Cummins pivot volunteering to remote opportunities during COVID-19 and spearheaded the company’s successful United Way campaign in North America.