(Posted March 21, 2012)

HUNTINGDON, Pa. -- Fred Mason, a retired executive for Caterpillar Inc., will serve as executive in residence for students in the Juniata College Department of Accounting, Business and Economics from March 27-29 and hold a talk and question and answer session on "What I Didn't Learn In School" at 8 p.m., Wednesday, March 28, in Neff Lecture Hall in the von Liebig Center for Science.

The event is free and open to the public.

Fred Mason, a retired executive for Caterpillar Inc., will hold a talk on "What I Didn't Learn In School" at 8 p.m., March 28, in Neff Lecture Hall in the von Liebig Center for Science.

Mason, now an independent consultant specializing in sustainable development as a source of shareholder value, international project management, global production location planning and corporate strategy, retired in 2010 as managing director of Caterpillar Luxembourg, S.a.r.l., a holding company he started, following a career with Caterpillar during which he was based in Europe for nearly 20 years and led organizations and projects in the Americas, EAME and Asia .

Mason will be the latest in a series of "executives-in-residence" in the college's business department in the last three years. During that his time on campus, he will sit in on classes, offer counseling sessions on interviewing, resume preparation and careers, and team with Juniata's business professors to hold workshops and classes.

Mason started his business career in 1973 at Caterpillar Inc., the world's largest manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, and industrial gas turbines.

Mason earned a bachelor's degree in economics from Juniata in 1973. He went on to earn a master's degree in business administration from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. He started his career as a business manager in the company's headquarters in Peoria, Ill. and moved to Europe in 1977, working for Caterpillar Overseas S.A., located in Geneva, Switzerland.

He returned to the United States in 1985, managing various functions at Caterpillar's corporate headquarters in Peoria. In 1994, he returned to Geneva as director of strategy and planning and later as finance director.

In 2002 Mason again returned to Peoria, where he worked in product source planning at corporate headquarters, relocating to Europe in 2005 to form Caterpillar Luxembourg S.a.r.l.

Mason was named to Juniata's board of trustees in 2008. He also is a trustee of the H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and the Environment in Washington, D.C.

Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.