Mike Rowe is Ready to Hit the Dirt with Caterpillar Customers and Dealers

PEORIA, Ill., July 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) has announced that it is partnering with Mike Rowe, the creator and star of the Discovery Channel's Dirty Jobs and founder of mikeroweWORKS.com.  With Mike's dedication to the trades and Caterpillar's commitment to its customers, the two have joined forces to highlight the important and essential work Caterpillar customers perform everyday.  

Rowe will be spending time with Caterpillar customers and dealers to get a real world perspective on their jobs and how the two partner to be successful.  These encounters will be featured on cat.com and at Cat Dealerships across the country and will be used to demonstrate the solutions that Cat Dealers provide their customers throughout the lifecycle of their equipment, highlighting their superior parts and service support.

"When hard work is being performed and progress is being made, Mike wants to be in the thick of it, so teaming with him is an absolute perfect fit," said Denny Vosberg, Caterpillar Parts and Service Support Manager.  "Our dealer personnel are the best in the world and have been supporting our customers with their critical work for generations.  Now is the time to shine a light on it and Mike is going to help us with that."  

Rowe, who calls himself a perpetual apprentice, has performed more than 300 jobs in locations around the country via his show, Dirty Jobs, which is currently one of the Discovery Channel's most popular programs.  Mike is also the creator of mikeroweWORKS.com, a website dedicated to and for people in the trades to meet, discuss relevant topics and learn what is the latest in the industry.  He says his partnership with Caterpillar was "inevitable" because the two share the same work philosophy.

"I see Cat equipment and the hard working people operating it around the world, building and creating infrastructure," said Rowe.  "I'm excited to go beyond the machine and talk with the people who are actually making it happen."  

More information can be seen on http://www.cat.com.    

About Caterpillar:

For more than 85 years, Caterpillar Inc. has been making progress possible and driving positive and sustainable change on every continent.  With 2009 sales and revenues of $32.396 billion, Caterpillar is the world's leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines and industrial gas turbines.  The company also is a leading services provider through Caterpillar Financial Services, Caterpillar Remanufacturing Services, Caterpillar Logistics Services and Progress Rail Services.  More information is available at: http://www.cat.com.

About mikeroweWORKS

mikeroweWORKS is a PR campaign for hard work and skilled labor.  Its purpose is to call attention to the growing skills gap in the trades while providing a comprehensive resource for anyone looking to investigate a career in those vocations, as well as focus the country on the very real issues facing our trade workers and farmers.  In addition to the trade resource center, Mike has established the mikeroweWORKS Foundation to help fund scholarship programs and other initiatives that reinvigorate Trade School enrollments and industrial arts programs around the country. www.mikeroweWORKS.com.  

SOURCE Caterpillar Inc.