John G. Newman

President and Chief Executive Officer Progress Rail (a Caterpillar company)

Last Reviewed: September 18, 2026

Executive Summary

John G. Newman leads Progress Rail, the Caterpillar subsidiary that builds and services locomotives, freight cars, track and signalling systems for railroads worldwide, and he holds the corresponding officer title of Senior Vice President of Caterpillar Inc. His route to the job is unusual. He arrived in 2011 as a lawyer — a Legal Services Division attorney assigned to support Progress Rail — and within a year had moved to the commercial side, running the Sub-Saharan Africa region from Pretoria. From there he crossed into corporate services, then into running the infrastructure business, and finally into the chief executive’s chair at the start of 2023. Few industrial CEOs have that particular combination of an engineering degree, an international business master’s, a law degree and a stint selling rail equipment in southern Africa, and it is a fair description of what the job actually requires: a business that sells heavy capital equipment into regulated national rail systems is as much a legal and commercial exercise as an engineering one.

Career Highlights

• Appointed Senior Vice President of Caterpillar Inc. and President and Chief Executive Officer of Progress Rail effective at the start of 2023, succeeding Marty Haycraft, who retired at the end of 2022 after 32 years of service.
• Executive Vice President of Infrastructure from 2018, a role he held for five years before becoming chief executive.
• Senior Vice President of Corporate Services from 2015, responsible for administrative functions, strategic growth and mergers and acquisitions.
• Regional director for Sub-Saharan Africa, based in Pretoria, South Africa, and subsequently the company’s strategic sales director.
• Joined Caterpillar in 2011 as an attorney in the Legal Services Division supporting Progress Rail.
• Practised law at Burr & Forman LLP on business planning, mergers and acquisitions, economic development and antitrust matters.
• Board member of the Business Council of Alabama and the Marshall County Economic Development Council, and a former board member of the Arthritis Foundation’s Southeast Region.

Professional Journey

Newman took an engineering degree at Auburn University, a master’s in international business administration at the University of South Carolina’s Darla Moore School of Business, and a J.D. cum laude from the University of Alabama. Before practising law he worked across the pharmaceutical, technology and textile industries — an unusually broad industrial grounding for someone who would go on to a legal career. At Burr & Forman LLP his practice covered business planning, mergers and acquisitions, economic development and antitrust matters, all of which map closely onto what a large industrial subsidiary needs from its lawyers.

Caterpillar hired him in 2011 into the Legal Services Division, supporting Progress Rail. The move out of law came quickly: in 2012 he joined Progress Rail’s commercial team as regional director for Sub-Saharan Africa, relocating to Pretoria, and later became the company’s strategic sales director. Selling rail equipment into African markets is a demanding commercial education — long procurement cycles, sovereign and parastatal customers, and financing structures that often matter more than the specification.

In 2015 he was promoted to Senior Vice President of Corporate Services, a remit spanning administrative functions alongside strategic growth and M&A. Three years later he became Executive Vice President of Infrastructure, running the part of the business concerned with track, signalling and related systems rather than rolling stock, and held it for five years.

In October 2022 Caterpillar announced that Marty Haycraft would retire at year end after 32 years and that Newman would succeed him as President and CEO of Progress Rail and Senior Vice President of Caterpillar Inc., effective at the start of 2023. Alongside the operating role he has kept a visible presence in Alabama civic life, serving on the boards of the Business Council of Alabama and the Marshall County Economic Development Council, and on the board of the Arthritis Foundation’s Southeast Region.

Education

Auburn University

Bachelor’s degree, Engineering

Darla Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina

Master’s degree, International Business Administration

University of Alabama School of Law

J.D., cum laude