Timken

The story of The Timken Company starts at a point where traditional success stories usually end, at the conclusion of a long and profitable career. This was when Henry Timken, a 19th century visionary and innovator in carriage manufacturing, patented the tapered roller bearing, in 1898. The following year, he formed a company to produce his innovation. Through a century, the company grew to make bearings of all types, specialty steel and an array of related products and services. That growth has included a number of acquisitions, the largest of which was The Torrington Company, in 2003. Today, The Timken Company is a global leader in friction management and power transmission. Timken has ranked among the 250 largest U.S. industrial corporations since the 1920s, and its story is linked with the major technological and institutional developments that have shaped our age. It would be hard to overstate the importance of anti-friction bearings and the processes used to make them in the advancement of work and living standards in the 20th century and beyond. And, the company has remained committed to shareholder value, paying dividends every quarter since becoming a public company in 1922. Both the distinctiveness and the strength of the company's character have derived largely from the sustained role of its founding family, which has maintained a financial stake in the firm and has provided leadership over the generations. Since its founding by Henry Timken in 1899, the company has had five chairmen, all Timken family members. After becoming a public company in 1922, the company adopted a practice of engaging professional executives to lead the company. The result is a highly cohesive management culture based on a shared sense of purpose built around pride of product, led today by Chairman Tim Timken (Henry's great-great grandson) and President and CEO Jim Griffith. There is an identity embodied in the Timken name that has stood firm for more than 100 years and which has come to stand for many worthy things: ethical business practices, quality products, innovation and independence of thought. .