Whirlpool names a new COO

Whirlpool Corporation has a new president and COO in Marc Bitzer, who was promoted from his most recent role as vice chairman.

In his new role, Bitzer will be responsible for all global operations, and he has also jointed the board of directors.

"Marc is an exceptional leader at Whirlpool Corporation with broad global experiences and unique qualifications to assume his new position," said Whirlpool chairman and CEO Jeff Fettig. "Marc has consistently demonstrated that he is an outstanding leader who has delivered strong results in his previous roles in both North America and Europe.  During the past year he and our European team have done an excellent job in integrating our major acquisition in Europe."

Bitzer has been serving as vice chairman since November of 2014, with accountability for the North American and European businesses. Prior to this role, he was serving as president of Whirlpool North America (NAR) and Whirlpool Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

He has been with the company since 1999, progressing through various leadership roles since.

"I have great confidence in Marc's ability to lead our global operations in driving both growth and value creation across our operations and advancing the company's strategy with our global leadership team," added Fettig.

Whirlpool Corporation also announced  that vice chairman Michael Todman will begin his planned retirement at the end of the year after 22 years of service to the company. He is credited with leading the acquisition and integration of Hefei Sanyo in China, as well as leading operations throughout Asia, Latin America, and Global Information Systems.

"Mike Todman has been a key leader and has played an integral part of all the positive changes within our company during the past 22 years," said Fettig.  "He has either directly run, or had responsibility for, all of our regional businesses in the world during his tenure at Whirlpool Corporation.  Mike has been instrumental in the expansion of our global enterprise and the growth of our brand portfolio enabling us to be the number one appliance maker in the world.  In addition, Mike has personally developed and mentored the strong succession of leaders we have in the business today."