Karl Weiss, Caterpillar

Karl Weiss is chief technology officer and a senior vice president of Caterpillar Inc., responsible for the Integrated Components and Solutions (ICS) Division. ICS designs and builds components and systems that are used across the Caterpillar portfolio and also provides technology leadership, engineering, research, validation and manufacturing services to the enterprise.

Since joining Caterpillar in 1988, Weiss has had various assignments within product development at Caterpillar’s Decatur, Joliet, and Aurora facilities, primarily focused on large machine structural design. He subsequently transferred to Geneva, Switzerland, with Caterpillar Global Mining as an equipment management consultant serving mining customers and dealers in Europe and Africa. Weiss then became the large wheel loader new product introduction manager in Aurora, Illinois. He and his family then moved to Beijing, China, for four years, where Weiss served as the wheel loader product manager for the Asia Pacific region. In that role, he managed the integration of Shandong Engineering Machinery (SEM) as Caterpillar’s entry into the China wheel loader market. Weiss served as the worldwide product manager for medium wheel loaders in Aurora. In 2013, the Caterpillar board of directors named Weiss as senior vice president of Earthmoving. He was then named senior vice president of Material Handling & Underground in August 2017 and senior vice president of ICS and chief technology officer in May 2019.

Weiss, a native of Hagerstown, Indiana, graduated from Purdue University in 1992 with a bachelor’s degree in agricultural engineering. He received a master’s degree in business administration from Northern Illinois University in 1999.