Five years after moving its corporate headquarters to Deerfield, Illinois, Caterpillar announced it was leaving the state of Illinois and moving to Irving, Texas.
The move to Deerfield followed a 2014 dustup between former CEO Doug Oberhelman and then-Gov. Pat Quinn, a Democrat, during which Oberhelman threatened to move the company out of Illinois.
Caterpillar has had a presence in Texas since the 1960s across several areas of the company. Illinois remains the largest concentration of Caterpillar employees anywhere in the world.
“We believe it’s in the best strategic interest of the company to make this move, which supports Caterpillar’s strategy for profitable growth as we help our customers build a better, more sustainable world,” said chairman/CEO Jim Umpleby.
