Machinery maker Caterpillar Inc. said Wednesday that it elected former Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman, also a former governor and ambassador, to its board of directors.
Caterpillar said Huntsman, 51, joined the board effective immediately.
Huntsman was elected governor of Utah in 2004 and won a second term in 2008. He resigned in 2009 to become the U.S. ambassador to China and left that job in 2011 to run for the Republican presidential nomination. He withdrew from the GOP primary race in mid-January.
Huntsman also has worked as an executive at the chemical company Huntsman Corp., which was founded by his father, Jon Huntsman Sr. He left the company in 2005 and returned in February.
He also is a member of Ford Motor Co.'s board of directors and the chairman of the Huntsman Cancer Foundation.