2010 Sustainability Report - Cummins.com

Dr. Franklin Chang-Diaz
Title: Chairman and CEO of Ad Astra Rocket
Company. Member, Cummins Board of Directors
(December 2009).
Education: Bachelor of Science degree in
mechanical engineering from the University of
Connecticut in 1973. Doctorate in applied plasma
physics from the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology in 1977.
Career: Dr. Chang-Diaz began working on rocket
propulsion shortly after getting his doctorate at
MIT. He worked as a visiting scientist with the MIT
Plasma Fusion Center from 1983 to 1993, and
then served as Director of the Advanced Space
Propulsion Laboratory at Johnson Space Center
until 2005 when he founded Ad Astra.
In space: Chang-Diaz became an astronaut in
1981. He was in space seven times (1986, 1989,
1992, 1994, 1996, 1998, and 2002), logging more
than 1,600 hours in space, including 19 hours and
31 minutes in three spacewalks.
Q: You are very active in an ambitious economic and
social development effort in Costa Rica, called the
21st Century Strategy. Can you talk about that a bit?
A: For the last four years, I have been involved with a
very large group of scientists, politicians and thinkers,
and we have developed something of a master plan.
The whole concept is to make Costa Rica a first-world
country by the middle of this century.
Costa Rica is a very small country, but it is a country that
has a lot of future and ambition. It is a country that has
all the ingredients to achieve success. Politically, it is very
stable and economically it is very diversified. It is also a
country that has invested a great deal in education.
But, there are still a lot of needs. There is still a
great deal of poverty and a widening gap between
the rich and poor.
Our role is like that of a flight controller. All these
projects are funded by some other group, but we
act like a very large radar screen and monitor them.
Our role is to make sure they all fly in the right direction
and nobody crashes.
Q: Have you found your work with the strategy
group to be good fit for Cummins’ interests in
corporate responsibility?
A: Yes. Tim is interested in diversity, in new ideas and
reaching out to the developing world and he is very
interested in education. All these things are in concert
with the work the 21st Century Strategy group is
doing. There aren’t many companies that see the big
picture and care as much about improving the world
around them as Cummins does.
Q: What does being an effective board member
mean to you?
A: I have a certain background that gives me a set
of skills that aren’t better or worse than other board
members, but are different. I hope that difference will
allow me to identify or see certain things that might
improve the company or might contribute to making
the company more effective, more prosperous …
make it a better company.
Corporate Governance
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