Caterpillar CTO says gender isn't a hindrance in heavy equipment business

Engineering may be a male-dominated field but that never deterred Tana Utley, chief technology officer at Caterpillar Inc.

Utley, 44, also was named a vice president of the company last year when she took over the technology post previously held by Mark Pflederer, now heading Caterpillar's heavy construction and mining division.

Although Utley has a long-standing career with Caterpillar, she originally didn't plan it that way.

"My dad (Jan Allen) worked here as a mechanical engineer," she said from her office at Caterpillar's Mossville complex where two group photos - her father's first engineering group and her own - are framed together on the wall.

But Utley originally wanted to be a musician. "I took a minor in architectural drawing," she said.

Utley began to zero in on a career by her senior year at Bradley University. "I realized that music wasn't going to work out. I liked science and math so I pursued that," she said.

A career in medicine was out. "I wasn't good with blood," said Utley. So she moved towards engineering.

Graduating in the mid-1980s, Utley, who was married, hit the job market during recessionary times "when Caterpillar was losing $1 million a day," she recalled.

But Caterpillar's job offer was good and in 1986 she became that rare commodity: a female engineer. "Today, 10 percent of graduating engineers are women. It's better than it was but (the field is) still traditionally men," she said.

But Utley doesn't see herself as a symbol of change. "Those ladies (who worked as engineers at Caterpillar) 10 years before were the pioneers," she said.

What Utley does see is her position as a "conduit" between technology and business. "I try to get people to work together. I sometimes serve as an interpreter between technology and business people," she said.

She also knows that being a woman doesn't have to be a hindrance in the heavy construction field. "I was at our Tucson proving grounds recently. They were testing the 797, a 400-ton mining truck. It's like driving a house. The best operator of that vehicle (at the proving grounds) is a woman. A lot of the good operators in the mining field are women," she said.

Utley said a contractor told her he hired a lot of women operators on his construction site because they tended to be more careful and do less damage to the equipment.

Women might also have an advantage when it comes to maneuvering at the corporate level. "Learning how to work in a group is one of the advantages of being a woman," she said.

"Sometimes you've got to be the boss. When the debate's gone on long enough, someone has to step in and decide but, most of the time, logical minds will agree," said Utley.

Working for an international company that has doubled its sales in the past five years could be "overwhelming," she said. In an effort to stay level, "I try to stay focused on the job at hand," said Utley.

That job takes her all over the world. She travels to China, India and Europe twice a year. "It works out that every other month, there's an international trip," said Utley. There is also a lot of travel within the United States.

Yet as a lifelong central Illinois resident, Utley always enjoys coming home, where she's seen a transformation involving her employer.

"When I was in fourth grade, the teacher asked whose parents did not work at Caterpillar. Only three out of 20 didn't. Since then, we've seen some changes. The white collar/blue collar ratios are different. The numbers for that fourth-grade class might be reversed now," she said.

"I think it's healthy for the community. Diversity is good," she said.

Utley would like to see more diversity in the nation's engineering ranks. "We need to tap into more women and minorities," she said.

It's not just a matter of equal opportunity but global competition, said Utley. "In China and India, they're graduating a staggering number of engineers. That's a problem. We're seeing a shortage of U.S. engineers. We need more of that Yankee ingenuity," she said.

"I tell people that engineering is a people field. You're not stuck in a cubicle. You can hands-on things and there's lots of teamwork. The lonely researcher is a thing of the past," said Utley.

Steve Tarter can be reached at (309) 686-3260 or at starter@pjstar.com.