Company: Leadership

Ed Weisiger, Jr.

Mike Brown

Mike Brown has worked with Caterpillar and associated Caterpillar dealers for 26 years. He joined Carolina CAT in 1994, began serving as Vice President in 2000, and was promoted to Senior Vice President in 2007. In addition to his duties as a member of senior staff, he is the General Manager of the Power Systems Division. Those responsibilities include overseeing the daily operations of Personnel, Operations, Development, Strategic Planning and Financial Management for both the Commercial and Truck departments. 

Mike has had extensive experience with sales operations, sales management, rental operations, project management, service department management, parts operations and accounting. He graduated in 1978 with a B.S. in Business, and completed management programs from the Bell Institute for Leadership, Olan Hendrix School of Management, and the Sloan School of Management at MIT. Mike also holds a Dale Carnegie Certificate in Sales Management. Additionally, he completed courses in accounting and project management from the association of San Diego and Santa Clara Community College; studies also included courses in construction law and construction law for sub-contractors.

Tom Bell

Tom Bell joined Carolina Tractor as Vice President, Human Resources Director in May 2006. In his role, Tom is responsible for managing all areas of the Human Resources function for over 900 employees. He and his team are in the process of implementing several human resource systems to support the development and needs of the employees.

Brandon Hess

Brandon Hess was named Vice President of Product Support for Carolina CAT’s Construction Division in November of 2009. Brandon will play a pivotal role in Carolina CAT's future growth and success by ensuring that the dealership provides it's customers with unparalleled Product Support Customer Service.

Brandon's career started when he volunteered for Service and joined the United States Army. As an Army Airborne Ranger, he specialized in combat parachuting and special operations. Upon leaving the military he joined a Power Screen dealer as a General Manager with Parts, Service and Sales responsibility for Georgia and South Carolina. In 1999, Brandon joined Yancey Brothers Company, the Caterpillar Dealer for the state of Georgia. At Yancey Bros., he had several management roles including Parts and Warehouse Operations; Metro Atlanta Service; Corporate Accounts (Quarry and Aggregates) and Product Support Sales, before moving into his most recent role as General Parts Manager. Brandon also help to lead the dealership’s acquisition team in their purchase of Carlton Company. By partnering with company technicians, managers and customers, Brandon played a key role in the growth and development of Yancey's Product Support business.

Vic Morris

Vic Morris joined Carolina Tractor as Vice President of Construction Sales in October of 2008. Prior to joining Carolina Tractor, he was the Vice President of Product Support for Yancey Brothers in Atlanta, where he served on the Executive Management team.

While the majority of Vic’s 25 years of experience has been on the product support side of the business, he spent a tremendous amount of time partnering with customers and working with the sales function of Yancey Brothers to develop customer solutions. Vic was instrumental in establishing new business opportunities, including an arrangement with Exxon-Mobil for the distribution of oil in the Georgia territory. His background and experience will be an asset in helping to maintain Product Support as Carolina Tractor’s clear competitive advantage.

Vic has a Bachelor’s Degree from Kennesaw State University in Management.

Reed Owsley

Reed Owsley joined Carolina Tractor as Vice President, General Manager of Pinnacle Cranes in 2001.  Reed is responsible for managing all areas of the Pinnacle Crane division of Carolina Tractor.  During his 37 years of experience with crane distribution, he acquired a wealth of knowledge of all aspects of the industry. Reed is an alumni of North Carolina State University with a BA in History. He has participated as a member of the Association of Equipment Distributors and the Specialized Carriers and Riggers Association. 

Robert Russell

Robert Russell joined Carolina Tractor as Vice President, Chief Financial Officer in July 2008.  Prior to joining Carolina Tractor, Robert was the CFO/Finance Director for Barloworld, one of the world's largest multinational dealers. Barloworld has U.S. operations focused on material handling and is the Caterpillar dealer for South Africa.

Robert’s 26+ years of experience started in public accounting as a Senior Auditor with Deloitte Haskins & Sells.  One of Robert’s clients at Deloitte was Wrenn Handling, a subsidiary of Barloworld, where Robert moved to as Division Controller.  Robert took on several roles with Wrenn and was serving as Vice President of Corporate Services (CFO) when Barloworld asked Robert to serve a dual role as CFO and Chief Information Officer of its Industrial Distribution Division.

From there, Robert moved to focusing exclusively on the Finance side of the business as CFO of the Industrial Distribution Division, a global distributor of lift trucks (e.g. Hyster), Over-the-Road Trucks (e.g. Freightliner), Construction Machinery (e.g., Ditch Witch), and related parts/service.  The business unit Robert was responsible for had 3500 employees and $1 billion in annual revenue with operations in the USA and Europe.  In his role as CFO, Robert also gained significant experience in mergers and acquisitions.

Robert has a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and is a licensed CPA.

Bill Ryan

Bill Ryan came to Carolina Tractor in March of 2005 as the VP and General Manager of LiftOne. He is a New Englander whose extensive experience in the material handling industry spans over 27 years. He received his BA from St. Anselm College in New Hampshire and then immediately moved to Philadelphia, PA, beginning his career in this industry. To learn the basics of Customer Service and fundamentals of the business, he worked in many different capacities. This diverse experience in all facets of the industry served him well as he moved into management positions, finally becoming the General Manager of several retail factory-owned dealerships. Bill was promoted into various corporate positions for that same manufacturer in both domestic and international capacities - including global Product Manager, Area Manager and Dealer Development.