John May named as new CEO of Deere & Company

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The Deere & Company board of directors has elected John C May to the position of chief executive officer – only the 10th chief executive in the company’s 182-year history.

May had served as Deere’s president and chief operating officer since this April.

“John’s experience in precision agriculture, IT and overseas operations will be instrumental in driving the company’s digitalisation journey and extending its success in agricultural and construction equipment,” said Samuel R Allen, outgoing chief executive officer.

Meanwhile, as the Gleneagles’ and volunteer greenkeeping teams led by golf courses manager Craig Haldane, together with director of agronomy and estates Scott Fenwick, put the finishing touches to the Jack Nicklaus-designed PGA Centenary Course, for last month’s Solheim Cup, John Deere and local dealer Double A were equally busy behind the scenes.

The greenkeeping team at Gleneagles rose to 100 people. John Deere was the official golf course and turf maintenance machinery event partner to Gleneagles.

John Deere exclusively provided golf course maintenance machinery and ancillary equipment for use across all three championship golf courses.

“We are very grateful for the support from our local dealer Double A as we geared up the John Deere fleet ahead of the tournament,” says Craig Haldane.

The Queen’s Course at Gleneagles on August 12, 2019 in Auchterarder, Scotland. (Photo by David Cannon/Getty Images)

“Closing the course three weeks prior to the event allowed it to recover from any stress and provided additional time to prepare and introduce a higher frequency of cut. By fine tuning our existing practices we were able go up a level in terms of a quality cut and finish for the tournament.

“We’re also very fortunate to benefit from the extra resources and experience provided by the greenkeepers supporting our team. Eight of the 52 volunteers were women, who joined our own Laura Campbell and BIGGA’s Tracey Maddison to help with the course preparations.”

Carlos Aragones, John Deere European turf sales & marketing manager, adds: “We are also proud of our collaboration with Gleneagles in helping to prepare the course for such a prestigious tournament.”

In 2019 John Deere and its dealers are supporting more than 10 major tournaments in the UK and Ireland.