3M appoints Otis executive Maheshwari as its new CFO

(Reuters) - Industrial giant 3M Co on Thursday appointed elevator maker Otis Worldwide executive Anurag Maheshwari as its chief financial officer, succeeding Monish Patolawala, who was in the role for four years.

Maheshwari would assume the role on Sept. 1, while Teri Reinseth would serve as the finance chief in the interim.

Maheshwari joined Otis in 2020 and spent two years in the Asia Pacific region as vice president, finance, information technology and chief transformation officer. He is currently the executive vice president and CFO at the company.

Before joining Otis, he was the vice president, investor relations at defense firm Harris Corporation, now called L3Harris Technologies.

Former top boss at L3Harris, Bill Brown, took over as the chief executive officer at 3M in May.

According to some Wall Street analysts, Patolawala's exit from 3M was expected as he was likely passed over for the role of CEO for industry veteran Brown.

The post-it maker is in the middle of a major restructuring, which included job cuts and the spin off of its healthcare business into a listed company, to mitigate the impact of a slowdown in demand.

It is also facing thousands of lawsuits over water pollution claims tied to "forever chemicals".

(Reporting by Kannaki Deka in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)