{"id":183775,"date":"2026-02-28T00:44:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T00:44:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/183775\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T00:44:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T00:44:13","slug":"atis-kimberly-fields-forged-a-unique-path-to-the-c-suite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/183775\/","title":{"rendered":"ATI\u2019s Kimberly Fields forged a unique path to the C-suite"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Top Gun: Maverick came out, Kimberly Fields, the CEO of ATI Inc.<\/a>, went to see it with her now 24-year-old son. As Tom Cruise climbed to the edge of the atmosphere at hypersonic speeds, Fields pointed at the edges of the plane\u2019s black metal, which glowed orange.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe make that,\u201d Fields told him with infectious pride. <\/p>\n

Not literally, of course. The \u201cDarkstar\u201d scramjet that gets ripped apart at Mach-10 is a fictional aircraft, flying at a currently impossible speed. Very real, though, is ATI\u2019s importance to the aerospace and defense industries, and Fields\u2019 palpable passion for the company and its people.<\/p>\n

The Dallas-based manufacturer, which employs 7,600 worldwide, is the 31st-largest public company in the region<\/a> by revenue. It brought in more than $4 billion in 2024 making high-performance materials and metal alloys for use in jet engines, structural components and more. It also happens to be the largest public company in Dallas-Fort Worth that\u2019s led by a woman. <\/p>\n

Fields, 56, recently achieved a sort of leadership triple crown, anointed after balancing single motherhood and the challenges \u2014 and opportunities \u2014 of a male-dominated industry. Named President of ATI in July 2023, and CEO in July 2024<\/a>, taking over for retiring CEO Robert Wetherbee, Fields was elected Board Chair in November; she will succeed Wetherbee when he retires from the position in May. <\/p>\n

Business Briefing<\/p>\n

Become a business insider with the latest news.<\/p>\n

By signing up, you agree to our\u00a0Terms of Service<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n

Fields will tell you she\u2019s honored by the vote of confidence from the board and what it suggests about ATI, but get her talking about being in the field (it\u2019s not hard) and she lights up. ATI has manufacturing facilities in 12 states, Poland and China, and sales locations all across the globe, serving customers like SpaceX and Boeing. <\/p>\n

\"President<\/p>\n

President and CEO of Dallas-based ATI Inc., Kimberly Fields at one of ATI’s manufacturing plants.<\/p>\n

Courtesy of ATI Inc.<\/p>\n

Visiting those and working with the people there, she said, is the best part of her job. <\/p>\n

\u201cProbably the most exciting day of my life is when we got to tour with one of our big customers, Cape Canaveral, and see the launch sites and see the space shuttles,\u201d she told The Dallas Morning News in an interview in December. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy team always knows I want to go on a plant tour. I want to go see the customers. I want to go see how [our product is] being used, because that\u2019s really energizing to me, and then seeing the people that make it happen is just incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fields said it\u2019s not surprising to her that she ended up leading an aerospace company, because as a kid she wanted to be an astronaut. However, it was her first job at Owens Corning where she fell in love with working in plants. <\/p>\n

Back then, she was an engineer fresh out of college and the only woman in the glass melting area of the company. She likened the engineering part of her job to the scene in Apollo 13 where the astronauts have to use duct tape, cardboard and plastic bags to make a carbon dioxide filter. Working with people from all walks of life was even more challenging, and commensurately rewarding. <\/p>\n

\u201cI found myself sitting in the control rooms talking with the guys and saying, \u2018What\u2019s your biggest problem, and can I fix that for you?\u2019\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

She recalled one man, though, who was not responsive to her efforts to help. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe just would not use the tools I was building. And it was really frustrating,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Finally, another worker at the plant pulled her aside and asked her why she thought the man wasn\u2019t engaging with her. Fields was stumped until the worker told her the man had never learned to read. Twenty-two and a fresh college graduate, it never occurred to her that someone might not know how to read. The experience taught her that if she was going to be a leader, excitement for the task wasn\u2019t enough. She also needed to deeply understand who she was working with. <\/p>\n

\"ATI<\/p>\n

ATI Inc., based in Dallas, Texas, manufactures specialty metals and alloys for the aerospace and defense industries.<\/p>\n

Courtesy of ATI Materials<\/p>\n

\u201cIt happened early. I leaned towards working more with people, recognizing that power that you can unleash, and people start to see a potential they didn\u2019t even know they had,\u201d Fields said. <\/p>\n

After that, she began volunteering for opportunities in team leadership and organizational development within the plant, and five years later, she decided to make the jump entirely, and enrolled in business school. <\/p>\n

Fields joked that, at the time, she thought the really good engineers\u2019 jobs seemed boring, because everything worked as it should. To this day, she said, \u201cI like it when things are going wrong \u2026 I get more calm when there\u2019s a crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Why would he tell you that?\u2019<\/p>\n

Fields hasn\u2019t always been aware when she\u2019s the only woman in a room. Once, back in college, she was \u201cbored out of [her] mind\u201d in an electrical engineering lecture of about 60 people, so she started looking around to count the women. Turns out, she was the only one. \u201cHow did I never notice that?\u201d <\/p>\n

\"Kimberly<\/p>\n

Kimberly Fields, CEO of ATI, is photographed at her Uptown Dallas office, December 2, 2025. ATI is the largest woman-led public company in North Texas, and she was recently named the next chair of the ATI board as well. <\/p>\n

Tom Fox \/ Staff Photographer<\/p>\n

In D-FW, only seven of the region\u2019s 150 largest public companies are led by women. Of the wider Fortune 500, 11% have female CEOs<\/a>, and that mark only crossed into double-digits in 2023. With 19% of its CEOs being women, Fields\u2019 own industry of aerospace and defense is well ahead of others<\/a>, yet she still sometimes feels the impact of her gender. The trick has been learning how to use the moments she\u2019s treated differently as opportunities. <\/p>\n

As a student at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Fields liked to see the reactions \u2014 \u201cthe shock factor\u201d \u2014 when she told frat partygoers she was majoring in nuclear engineering. When she graduated with a ceramics engineering degree and went to work for Owens Corning, she took pride in handling the hot, dirty conditions of a glass melting plant. <\/p>\n

Early in her career, \u201crunning around the plant with my hair in a ponytail,\u201d Fields learned how to use humor to break down barriers that kept colleagues, often union men double her age, from listening to her and trusting her. And while some still challenged her authority, usually she could get through to skeptics with her genuine enthusiasm for solving their problems.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s carried those lessons into her tenure as an executive at ATI, which employs around 7,700 people worldwide. Fields said that most men subconsciously compare the women they work with to either their mom or their spouse. So be it, thinks Fields, because it means they\u2019re more vulnerable with her than they would have been with another man. <\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the guys on my team even laugh because I tell them about some of the conversations I\u2019ve had with our customers\u2019 CEOs, and they\u2019re like \u2018Why would he tell you that?\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cWomen listen and they engage differently, and people get relaxed. And from a leadership standpoint, it\u2019s about helping your teams engage, get to their potential and get passionate.\u201d <\/p>\n

That openness can be a real competitive advantage. Fields said that people inside ATI have marveled at winning business \u201cthere\u2019s no way we should have won.\u201d They didn\u2019t always have the experience or the product knowledge. But what they did have was a willingness to listen and work with customers collaboratively and openly. <\/p>\n

In ATI\u2019s most recent earnings call, Fields touted that her company\u2019s deliveries of isothermal forgings to jet engine-maker Pratt & Whitney grew sixfold between 2023 and 2025. <\/p>\n

Behind the scenes, Pratt & Whitney was in major trouble. In 2023, the company identified a manufacturing defect<\/a> in potentially hundreds of the geared turbofan engines it supplied to Airbus and Embraer. Fixing the problem would require an average of 350 planes grounded at any given time between 2024-26 as they were inspected and repaired. <\/p>\n

Facing a $6 billion financial impact from the ordeal, Pratt & Whitney reached out to ATI which already supplied some forgings to them, Fields said. They had a big ask for increased output to help get the planes off the ground, even though at the time, the companies\u2019 relationship was not that deep. Within ATI, the president of the division supplying the forgings came to Fields upset that Pratt & Whitney would even ask with ATI\u2019s output already at-capacity.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Well, what would have to be true?\u2019\u201d said Fields, challenging him to think about what increased output would look like. They evaluated ATI\u2019s assets and where things could become more efficient, and in the end, ATI was able to double its forging output to help Pratt & Whitney, deepening the relationship.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not going to worry that you\u2019re going to steal our IP or steal our technology. We\u2019re going to work together to figure out this problem, and we discovered a solution that nobody even saw was there,\u201d Fields said. <\/p>\n

\u2018Just for my mom\u2019<\/p>\n

Fields\u2019 palpable optimism perhaps obscures the fact that manufacturing and aerospace are not easy industries. <\/p>\n

Every time a plane engine fails, she knows about it, and can tell by the video \u2014 the location of the flames, where on the engine it broke \u2014 whether it was an ATI material that caused the problem.<\/p>\n

Not even two months after she became Chief Operating Officer, Russia invaded Ukraine<\/a>, drastically altering the landscape of defense in the years since. Last year, in her first full year as CEO, President Donald Trump\u2019s sweeping tariffs<\/a> stressed global supply chains. <\/p>\n

But navigating choppy waters is nothing new to Fields, a single mom.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not a better multitasker [than a woman], I\u2019m just saying, especially a mother,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

When her son, now 24, was a toddler, Fields and her husband divorced. She was already working her way up the corporate ladder, and suddenly, \u201cit\u2019s like doing a tightrope with no net,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Bonuses early in her career went to in-home care. For a decade, she traveled and commuted so her son could stay in one place. She put demanding promotions on hold, and she was always looking for a new babysitter. She would fall in love with one, only for the babysitter to go to college, or move away. Each time, Fields figured it out, and ensured her son was happy. <\/p>\n

Fields pointed out that even married women with careers are usually still doing most of the domestic labor at home, and what she was doing in terms of caretaking was similar before and after her divorce. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut what happens is, then you feel very responsible that if anything slips, there isn\u2019t that backup,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

She leaned a lot on her parents, her aunt and her sister when her son was young, and they were able to pick up the slack when Fields needed to be at work and her son was sick in bed and wanted to watch Mary Poppins all day. <\/p>\n

Now, out of college and living on his own, he returns the favor. When he visits her, they go to basketball games together, carrying on a tradition from when they lived in the Chicago area and became big Bulls fans. Fields said he keeps her grounded. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf our stock goes up or down, he\u2019ll be the first one to call me at five in the morning going, \u2018What\u2019s happening with your stock? What are you doing?\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cHe\u2019s paying attention. \u2026 It keeps you focused on what\u2019s important, which is family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fields helped start the ATI Women\u2019s Network in 2019, a source of support and employee engagement, in 2019, and a piece of advice she gives young women is that family and a career won\u2019t always be 50\/50. Sometimes your family needs you, and sometimes work needs you, and you have to get creative.<\/p>\n

\"President<\/p>\n

President and CEO of Dallas-based ATI Inc., Kimberly Fields speaks at one of ATI’s locations.<\/p>\n

J Craig Sweat<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re looking for balance, you\u2019re going to be disappointed. You\u2019re not going to meet your expectation[s],\u201d Fields said. \u201cBut if you try to make sure you\u2019re there for the important moments, then you can make that happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once, when her son was in second grade, he was \u201csuper excited\u201d to get cast as the rabbit in a school play. But the day of the performance, Fields needed to travel for work. <\/p>\n

Feeling guilty that she was going to miss the play, she reached out to his teacher to see if she could get pictures or a recording of a rehearsal. The teacher instead arranged for the class to perform during lunchtime so Fields could see her son. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe was so excited, you wouldn\u2019t have thought. He was like, \u2018We are doing a play just for my mom. She\u2019s that important that we\u2019re gonna do the whole play just for her.\u2019 And he was going around telling everyone, and over the moon,\u201d Fields said. \u201cWhere I was feeling guilty, he took it as a positive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Do you want to work for Bob Wetherbee?\u2019<\/p>\n

Fields and Robert Wetherbee \u201cweren\u2019t friends\u201d when he gave her the call that eventually made her ATI\u2019s executive vice president of flat rolled products in 2019. <\/p>\n

One of the last times they had spoken was a meeting back when Fields was 25. After deciding to go to business school, she became a consultant at Boston Consulting Group. It was a \u201cbe seen, not heard\u201d kind of position back then, Fields said. She was working with Wetherbee at the time, and had prepared presentation materials for him and set up the room for a meeting with several metal industry CEOs. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey come in and he goes, \u2018Okay, we\u2019re gonna do the presentation now,\u2019 and he grabs my seat, he pulls me to the middle of the table and he\u2019s like, \u2018and Kim\u2019s gonna give it,\u2019\u201d Fields said. \u201cI was scared out of my mind, but you know, he saw my potential and gave me the courage, and it was like, \u2018Okay, here I go. Hopefully this works.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Safe to say, it did. Two decades later, Wetherbee was promoted to CEO of ATI and needed a successor. When he told the recruiters searching for one that he wanted someone like Fields, it\u2019s hard to say whether he was thinking of the consultant that rose to the occasion or the then Group President for Industrial and Energy at IDEX, an industrial components manufacturer. But the recruiters nevertheless said, \u201c\u2018We might as well get her then,\u2019\u201d Fields recounted. <\/p>\n

Her first conversation with recruiters went something like this: \u201cDo you want to come back to the metals industry?\u201d \u2014 \u201cHmm, I don\u2019t know.\u201d \u2014 \u201cDo you want to work for Bob Wetherbee?\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I said, \u2018Yes! I would love to talk,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Wetherbee called her to seal the deal, and he told her, \u201c\u2018Let\u2019s develop you and see if you\u2019re ready,\u2019\u201d Fields recalled. <\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, I came into this role, and just the opportunity to compete and be considered for the corner office was what I was looking for. The fact that I was successful and the board supported that, it\u2019s just icing,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\"President<\/p>\n

President and CEO of Dallas-based ATI Inc., Kimberly Fields cuts the ribbon at a new facility.<\/p>\n

Stephen Luttinger Photography \/ Stephen Luttinger Photography<\/p>\n

Now, as president, CEO and soon-to-be board chair, Fields still calls Wetherbee, who has become a close mentor and friend, for advice or just to chat. <\/p>\n

\u201cI say, \u2018Hey, I\u2019ve got this problem,\u201d she said. \u201cThe funniest thing was, I said, \u2018You had Covid. I have Trump. I think mine\u2019s harder.\u2019 And he laughed and he\u2019s like, \u2018Yep, I think you\u2019re right.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

In Fields\u2019 tenure at the helm, ATI has seen steady growth. Since 2023, profit has grown by $200 million, and Fields is, unsurprisingly, optimistic about the future. The company is filing new patents and considering more space in its Dallas office. ATI\u2019s board is also now 50% women.<\/p>\n

Fields credits ATI\u2019s young, incoming talent for the innovation and growth ATI is achieving, and she tries to give them the same chance Wetherbee gave her two decades ago, like letting a new engineer project-manage a $70 million project. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s why ATI moved to Dallas from Pittsburgh in 2022<\/a>, to get the best talent. Fields noted the region is especially good for dual-income families and, therefore, the next generation of women leaders.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot only should they come, they need to. We need all of those diverse thoughts,\u201d Fields said.<\/p>\n

And when they come she has some advice: take the hard jobs, be present, and don\u2019t be insecure about why they may be getting opportunities. <\/p>\n

\u201cAll that is a chance at bat. If you strike out, you\u2019re not going to get to keep that opportunity,\u201d Fields said. \u201cWhat you do with it is all you, and if you\u2019re successful, that\u2019s all you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Children's<\/a>Children\u2019s Health Associate GC Kathleen Benner making a lasting impact<\/a><\/p>\n

She\u2019s been a driving force behind the hospital company\u2019s $5.4 billion pediatric campus project.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>Texas A&M cuts women, gender studies degrees, alters hundreds of courses <\/a><\/p>\n

A&M modifies hundreds of syllabi to enforce a new policy that bans the teaching race and gender ideology in the classroom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Top Gun: Maverick came out, Kimberly Fields, the CEO of ATI Inc., went to see it with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":183776,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[15530,102,104,103,19582,3621,12450,73558],"class_list":["post-183775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-ceo","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-local-companies","tag-technology","tag-veterans-and-military","tag-women-at-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}