Industrial, safety and consumer supplies manufacturing conglomerate 3M appointed William “Bill” Brown CEO to succeed Michael Roman, who will become Executive Chairman of the 3M Board of Directors, effective May 1.

Brown is the former Board Chairman and CEO of L3Harris Technologies, a global aerospace and defense technology contractor. He has also held executive positions at Harris Corp. prior to its merger with L3Harris Technologies, and a variety of leadership roles United Technologies Corporation.

Roman will continue to chair 3M’s board and provide insights from his more than 35 years with 3M to the company’s strategic direction as executive chairman of the board. He has served as 3M’s CEO since July 2018.

3M also announced that the Board of Directors waived the mandatory retirement age of 65 years for Roman and Brown.

2023 Financial Earnings

For the full year, 3M reported 2023 sales of $32.7 billion were down 4.5% compared to 2022, with organic sales down 3.2%. The company had a 2023 net loss of $7.0 billion (compared to $5.8B profit in 2022).