PEORIA — Peoria will “always be home to Caterpillar,” Caterpillar CEO Joe Creed said at the company’s centennial celebration in Edwards on Friday.
Creed, who was named as Caterpillar’s CEO in April, spoke to a large, invite-only crowd at the Edwards Demonstration and Learning Center, where he talked about his personal ties to central Illinois and Caterpillar’s ties to the Peoria region.
“This is the biggest celebration we are having anywhere in the world, and I am excited to have my family here today and to be with you all,” Creed said. “For those of you who don’t know, I grew up in central Illinois, moved all over the U.S., traveled the world with Caterpillar, but central Illinois will always be home to me, just like Peoria will always be home to Caterpillar. Our roots run deep here, you all know that, this is where it all started, where it began.”
Caterpillar built its first machines in the Peoria area 100 years and the region is still home to more than 12,000 Caterpillar employees. The manufacturer is no longer headquartered in Peoria, however. It left its Downtown Peoria home in 2017 for suburban Chicago and eventually moved to Texas.
On Friday, however, Creed recognized the company’s roots in the region and referred to Peoria as Caterpillar’s home. Creed was not made available for comment with the media.
Caterpillar’s machines put on huge show for 100th anniversary
Caterpillar’s centennial celebration in Edwards was highlighted by a huge demonstration show featuring 126 Caterpillar machines, both their largest and smallest, moving more than 17,000 tons of gravel. The show featured pyrotechnics, fast moving machines and, of course, a lot of dirt.
Caterpillar Senior Vice President of the Earth Moving Division Robert Strong said the 100-year celebration of Caterpillar was a “huge milestone” for the company.
“100 years, we’re only here because of our employees and retirees and obviously as employees it’s our responsibility to take it forward,” Strong said. “So, we’re also talking about the next 100 years, we have an innovation tent that talks a little about the technology and some of the other elements we’re going to do for our customers in the next 100 years.”
Strong, who has been with Caterpillar 28 years, said he “got the passion early” working for the company. He said the special part about the celebration to him was seeing the demo on Friday.
The demonstration on Friday, which was a highly coordinated and impressive display of Caterpillar’s machines, featured machines such as the large D11 bulldozer built in East Peoria to large mining trucks built in Decatur.
A wide variety of machines, some from the early 1900s and others among Caterpillar’s newest, were seen Friday.
Caterpillar employee Ben Hobbs attended the demonstration with his wife and four children. Hobbs, who has worked for Caterpillar 16 years and is currently employed in Cat Technology, said he and his children were excited to attend the event.
“We came out here to celebrate the 100 year anniversary of Caterpillar, very excited to see all of the machines and the kids were like ‘we’re going to Daddy’s work!'”
More than 8,000 man hours went into the planning of the event, which spanned multiple days and attracted more than 50,000 visitors. As part of its centennial celebration Caterpillar Foundation made $261,000 in donations to local charities, giving $87,000 each to Easterseals, the Dream Center and the Midwest Food Bank.
This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Peoria will ‘always be home’ to Caterpillar, CEO Joe Creed says
Reporting by JJ Bullock, Peoria Journal Star / Journal Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
