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Company that relocated to Dallas in 2022 names new chief executive

On July 1, Kimberly Fields will replace Robert Wetherbee, the company’s CEO since 2018.

ATI Inc. is elevating Kimberly Fields to the CEO role, replacing the executive who moved the company’s headquarters from Pittsburgh to Dallas in 2022.

Fields, 54, has been the publicly traded specialty metals company’s chief operating officer since 2022 and president since last July. She replaces Robert Wetherbee as CEO, effective July 1.

Wetherbee, chief executive since 2018, will become executive chairman of the company’s board of directors. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he shifted the company’s focus to more profitable products intending to earn the majority of its revenue from aerospace and industry specialty materials and metal alloys.

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Part of that shift included pursuing key aerospace, defense and oil industry players and moving ATI’s corporate headquarters staff to the McKinney & Olive high-rise office tower in Dallas’ Uptown District.

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ATI Inc.'s incoming CEO Kimberly Fields
ATI Inc.'s incoming CEO Kimberly Fields(Jen Barker Worley Photography / ATI)
ATI's outgoing CEO Robert Wetherbee
ATI's outgoing CEO Robert Wetherbee(Jen Barker Worley Photography / ATI)

Wetherbee is exiting the CEO role after ATI just posted strong financial results for 2023, with revenue up 9% to $4.17 billion and profits soaring 27% to just under $411 million.

“ATI is well-positioned, on a clear path to $5 billion in revenue and $1 billion in [pre-tax profits] by 2027,” he said in a statement. “Kim is ready to lead this organization. As ATI’s next CEO, Kim will further accelerate our growth and value creation.”

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Fields joined ATI in 2019 as executive vice president of its flat rolled products group. Before that, she was group president for industrial and energy at IDEX Corp., where she dramatically improved profitability and accelerated growth in the business portfolio, according to ATI.

She’s also helped grow General Electric Co.’s penetration in metals, petrochemicals and mining segments. She holds a bachelor’s degree in ceramic engineering from the University of Illinois and an MBA from Northwestern University.

“I’m honored to succeed Bob as ATI’s next CEO,” Fields said. “Collaboratively, we’ve built a team that is aligned, disciplined, and focused on execution to deliver extraordinary solutions to our customers’ most difficult challenges.”

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It marked the third major leadership change this week at North Texas companies.

Mark Jones, co-founder of Westlake-based Goosehead Insurance, is stepping aside as CEO and turning over the helm to the company’s No. 2 officer, Mark Miller. Global architecture firm HKS Inc. split up the CEO and president roles, with Dan Noble becoming CEO and chairman and its CFO Sam Mudro adding the president title.

In a regulatory filing Friday, ATI also outlined the new compensation packages for Fields and Wetherbee.

Fields’ base salary will be $900,000, with $750,000 in stock awards and a potential performance bonus of $1.125 million, according to the filing. In 2025, she’ll receive restricted stock awards valued at $3.5 million.

As executive chairman, Wetherbee’s base salary will be $750,000, with a potential performance bonus of $1.125 million. His pay package totaled $10,996,223 in 2023.

Before relocating to Dallas, ATI was known as Allegheny Technologies, the company whose parent business patented and commercialized stainless steel in the U.S.