Gretchen McClain is the New President of Fluid Technology
Fluid Technology has a new face.
On April 1, ITT named Gretchen McClain to lead the company's Fluid Technology Group. She replaces Hank Driesse, who is retiring after a distinguished 26-year career at ITT, during which he helped grow both the fluid technology and defense businesses.
For the past two years, McClain has served as president of Residential & Commercial Water (R&CW), one of the four value centers under the Fluid Technology umbrella. Under her leadership, R&CW made significant progress in unifying multiple businesses and brands into one integrated, global operation that is achieving strong, profitable growth. (To read more about R&CW's recent success, click here.)
Now she looks forward to following the same blueprint for all of Fluid Technology, which includes the R&CW, Flygt, Advanced Water Treatment and Industrial & Biopharm value centers, and which provides pumps and systems to transport and treat water and wastewater.
"This challenging opportunity has come much sooner than I ever dreamed possible, but what a business to lead!" exclaims McClain. "Our Fluid Technology business is a world leader in water with second-to-none talent, meaningful brands, strong distribution channels and a proven track record of success in a dynamic, growing market."
McClain was selected for this assignment because of her strong leadership and management skills. Like her predecessor, Hank Driesse, she came to Fluid Technology with years of experience in the space and aerospace markets. Prior to joining ITT in 2005, she served in various leadership roles at Honeywell Corporation and NASA, and the outstanding performance of R&CW under her direction showed that her talent and skills could transfer seamlessly to an entirely new industry.
"Gretchen has a proven track record of achievement as a leader, both at ITT and elsewhere, and she is well positioned to lead this critical group of businesses," says ITT CEO Steve Loranger.
In 2006, under Driesse, the Fluid Technology Group grew revenues by 10 percent and profits by 13 percent. To maintain momentum, he will partner closely with McClain and her team throughout the remainder of 2007 in support of ITT’s major operational excellence priorities at Fluid Technology.
"This business is already a strong performer, but it also has lots of potential," says McClain. "Our goal going forward is crisp definition and focused implementation of our integrated Fluid Technology strategy that will lead us to global water leadership."
Gretchen McClain, new head of the Fluid Technology group, was both a speaker and participant at ITT's 2007 Leadership Forum.
