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CantonRep.com / Bob Rossiter
At the annual Canton Regional Chamber of Commerce Banquet Wednesday were, from left, Dennis P. Saunier, chamber president & CEO, Timken Co. featured speakers, President & CEO James W. Griffith and board Chairman W. J. “Tim” Tim Timken Jr., outgoing chamber board chairman George W. Lemon and Rick L. Haines the new chamber board chairman.
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CANTON
Repository staff report
The Timken Co.’s top executives shared their story of the company’s reinvention at Wednesday’s 98th annual Canton Regional Chamber of Commerce dinner.
Ward J. “Tim” Timken Jr., chairman of the Timken board of directors, and James W. Griffith, president and chief executive officer, told the large crowd at Canton Memorial Civic Center that success was built upon the company’s ability to adapt and diversify from before the Great Depression to today.
Griffith began by challenging the record-setting audience of 825 with timed questions about the company which they answered with hand-held computers.
Q. How much were Timken’s 2011 full-year sales?
A. $5.2 billion
Q. How much steel is made from recycled materials?
A. Almost 100 percent.
Q. What percent of salaried personnel are engineers?
A. 1,600 or 25 percent
Q. What percentage of Timken’s workforce is in Ohio?
A. 5,300 or 25 percent, with 4,600 in Stark County.
Q. What percentage of the Timken workforce is in China?
A. 4,200 or 20 percent.
Q. How much have Timken sales grown since 2000?
A. 1,700 percent.
Q. Is Timken more of a foreign importer or U.S. exporter?
A. $677 million in goods were exported from the United States in 2011.
TIM SPEAKS
The company stresses ethics, quality, innovation and independence, Timken said.
“We want you to know that Timken’s commitment to this community is steadfast,” he added to loud applause. “And we intend to enhance our global impact.”
Three company produced films interspersed Griffith’s and Timken’s presentations. A slide show provided a view of the Jakarta, India, skyline. Jakarta is the latest sales office to be opened by the company.
“When my great-grandfather relocated from St. Louis to Canton,” Timken said, envying his forebear’s logic, “it was because it was half-way between Detroit where they were making cars and Pittsburgh where there was steel.”
Passing the Chamber’s board chairman gavel to Rick L. Haines, was outgoing chairman George W. Lemon. Haines is president of AultCare.
On behalf of Solmet Technologies, Joe Halter accepted the 2012 Business for the Arts Award given by the Chamber and ArtsinStark. (Information has been corrected to fix an error. See correction at end of story. 6:15 p.m. Feb. 9)
Correction: Joe Halter accepted the 2012 Business for the Arts Award on behalf of Solmet Technologies at the 98th annual Canton Regional Chamber of Commerce dinner. His last name was misspelled in this story when first published Wednesday night.