Richard Mills

President NA Manufacturing, Vice President Manitex International

Richard Mills is the President of Manitex North America and serves as Vice President for Manitex International. Richard joined Manitex in October 2022 and is primarily based in the Georgetown TX manufacturing facility with responsibility for all business activities in the North American market. Prior to joining Manitex, Richard led a specialty rail vehicle business unit for Caterpillar’s rail business, Progress Rail.

Richard ‘s career spans over 30 years in manufacturing, new product development and business development in high mix specialty vocational trucks, rail and heavy construction equipment in the UK, Europe and the US.

Richard is degreed mechanical and production engineer, starting his career in the UK with Aveling Barford in the UK, manufacturing heavy construction equipment, semi-trailers, axles and suspension systems. Emigrating to the United States in 1998 joining HEIL, the leading manufacturer of refuse trucks, dump trucks and tanker semi-trailers, leading the multi-site manufacturing transformation, subsequently joining JCB leading an accelerated new product development production launch, before joining Caterpillar’s rail division as VP with full P&L responsibility leading the specialty rail vehicle business unit.

Richard has extensive international expertise operating in the UK, Europe, India, Middle East and throughout the US and has championed multiple operational excellence business transformations as an advocate for employee engagement, continuous improvement, ISO9001 quality management systems and six sigma, significantly improving delivered product quality, customer retention and revenue growth. Richard also holds two successful US patents for new product development and manufacturing innovations.