KNOXVILLE –- Cummins Filtration Inc. President Pamela Carter — touted by Diversity and the Bar magazine as “one of the most talented professional women in the country” — will speak at the University of Tennessee on Sept. 12 as part of the MBA Distinguished Speaker Series.
Pamela Carter Carter has become one of the country’s top executives by breaking gender and ethnic barriers in her industry. Cummins Filtration, formerly Fleetguard Inc., is a Nashville-based division of Cummins Inc., a Fortune 500 engine manufacturing company.
Carter’s presentation, from 2-4 p.m. in the Carolyn P. Brown University Center Auditorium, will focus on business ethics and career path planning.
Carter’s resume includes being elected Indiana’s first woman and first black attorney general, serving as chief of staff for Indiana Governor Evan Bayh, and being the second female general counsel in Cummins’ history.
“I think (corporate leadership) must be thoroughly committed to the issue of diversity to ensure that it becomes a reality throughout the organization,” Carter told Diversity and the Bar, a publication of the Minority Corporate Counsel Assoc. “That’s the first step … leadership must embrace the notion and think that there is a strong business case for it in addition to the moral case.”
Carter spent 15 years as a social worker — a job she said helped polish her people skills and project management abilities — before earning her law degree from the Indiana University School of Law in 1984.
She was a litigator for the United Auto Workers for three years and then, in 1987, became a securities enforcement attorney for the state of Indiana.
Among the high-profile cases her office litigated — and won — was the Mike Tyson sex abuse case.
After four years as Indiana Attorney General, Carter chose to return to the private sector.
She spent a year with a private law firm specializing in economic development, antitrust and corporate transactions.
In 1997, Carter was offered the position as vice president-general counsel of Cummins Engine Co., now Cummins Inc.
Since then, Carter has held various positions within Cummins’ family of businesses. She spent a year living in Belgium as vice president-area business director and general manager for Fleetguard-Nelson in Europe, Middle East, and Africa. She also spent three years as vice president in charge of global sales, marketing, logistics, and distribution for Fleetguard, and then spent a year as vice president of Global Filtration.
In May 2005, she became president of Cummins Filtration. She remains a vice president of Cummins Inc.
“Ms. Carter has always had career choices,” Diversity and the Bar noted. “She has had the opportunity to pursue several different careers and has excelled in every one.”
Free and open to the public, Carter’s appearance is being sponsored by the College of Business Administration’s MBA Program, the College of Law and the Black Graduate and Professional Student Association.
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Contacts:
Amy Blakely, (865) 974-5034, amy.blakely@tennessee.edu
Cindy Raines, (865) 974-4359, craines1@utk.edu