WILLIAM HEWITT
1914: Born Aug. 9 in San Francisco.
Education: Hewitt attends the University of California and the business school at Harvard university.
1942-46: Hewitt serves in the U.S. Navy and participates in several important engagements in the Pacific.
1948: After a few years in the banking business and as an employee of the Pacific Tractor & Implement Co., Richmond, Calif., Hewitt joins Deere & Company.
1955: Hewitt is elected Deere & Company president on May 25.
1964: Hewitt is named chairman of Deere in April.
1955-82: During his tenure, the company experiences impressive growth and financial success. Hewitt manages the process of bringing the new four- and six-cylinder tractors into the Deere line. Seven years of development culminate in a spectacular introduction of the models called the “New Generation of Power” at a noteworthy dealer show in Dallas in 1960.
Other career accomplishments: Hewitt makes an early decision to take Deere & Company into the global business realm. By purchasing an old-line German tractor manufacturer, Heinrich Lanz, Deere begins to learn the ropes of international business. The company experiences more than a decade of difficulties and losses, which leads it to consider the feasibility of merging its international operations with those of a stronger foreign company. Extended negotiations in 1970-71 with Fiat, an Italian firm, become less attractive when Deere’s own operations turn the corner. During his service, Hewitt drives Deere’s international operations to success.

In the 1970s, the company expands operations throughout the world, enlarging its early endeavors in Mexico and Argentina, and extending its efforts throughout Western Europe, including manufacturing operations in France and Spain, and expanding its reach around the rest of the globe. A small South African operation becomes successful, and a joint effort with an Australian company is mutually beneficial, although initiatives to the People’s Republic of China, the Soviet Bloc and the Middle East are attempted with lesser success.

(Source: John Deere’s Company)