Kimberly A. Fields
President and CEO / ATI Inc.
ATI Inc. President and CEO Kimberly A. Fields sits down with CEO North America to discuss ATI’s transformation, driven by customer partnerships, targeted innovation, and operational discipline.
Founded over a century ago, ATI Inc. has grown into a $4.6 billion global producer of high-performance materials and solutions for the aerospace, defense and specialty energy markets. Headquartered in Dallas, TX, the company operates in more than 10 countries with 7,700 employees.
Today, ATI’s materials are found in everything from jet engines and commercial airframes to submarines, rotorcraft, ground vehicles and space rockets as well as heart stents, land based gas turbines, and nuclear reactors, showcasing its unmatched technical expertise and relentless drive for innovation.
A CEO Shaped by Experience
When Kimberly A. Fields assumed the position of CEO in 2024, she brought twenty years of industry experience and five years of hands-on leadership at ATI with her. “The business I started in was already on a path of transformation. As I looked across the portfolio, I recognized that we had some truly unique products and capabilities that were highly valued by the aerospace and defense industries.”
Her various roles across ATI, from business segments to operations, gave her a clear view of the company’s strengths. “As I moved into the CEO role, I had worked across all our regions and seen where we were providing highly differentiated value and products to our customers, where very few in the industry – and frankly across the globe – had the same capabilities and combination. And so, what we’ve been doing is focusing on those capabilities.”
“Demand for ATI’s differentiated products and solutions continues to be robust as we support our customers’ production ramps and critical missions. I am more confident than ever in ATI’s position as an integral part of our customers’ supply chains.”
Moving forward, Fields and her team continue to expand on ATI’s unique position of differentiated materials “extending a very deep competitive moat.”
Shaping Market Needs Around Customers
ATI’s market advantage relies as much on partnerships as on its products, with ATI’s customer relationships helping the company understand industry challenges. Fields explains, “Our integrated products across our business really puts us in a position to look across the industry – aerospace, defense as well as specialty energy.”
This integration provides ATI with a broad view of value chain trends. “Because we’re participating in aerospace, for example in the airframe as well as the engine, we receive very clear signals around demand. This gives us a solid understanding of how supply chains are operating, how the flow paths are going, on build rates. We can stay very aligned.”
Fields’ hands-on approach is central to ATI’s strategy. She encourages a solution-focused mindset, encouraging her team to draw upon the phrase: “What has to be true?”
“When a customer comes to us, our team doesn’t say no. They don’t shut it down. Instead, the question is, what has to be true? What do we need to do as a team to solve that problem?”
She proudly admits, “Supporting our customers and being able to get the performance out of materials that they need has provided a lot of growth opportunities for us, frankly, where maybe others in the supply chain weren’t able to respond or react as quickly.”
Looking Ahead, Medium to Long-Term
When asked about ATI’s future, Fields says aerospace is a key focus, where the company already has a strong presence and the market opportunities are vast. “Airbus and Boeing are continuing to add capacity so they can continue to ramp,” she explains. “Every engine contains our material in the hot section to help it run more efficiently, use less fuel, and withstand higher temperatures so they can reduce weight and increase engine output.”
“ATI’s strong balance sheet and cash flow generation provide flexibility to support growth and return capital to shareholders.”
ATI’s materials are found on every commercial jet flying today. “We’re one of the few companies that produce those materials and parts, supplying them to the industry for both MRO and new engines. We really are aligned to continuing to put in capacity.”
Under Fields, ATI also recently announced a major expansion of its nickel system, co-funded by customers, being carried out. Underway at its North Carolina campus, the project is significant, modernizing and upgrading ATI’s melting systems, expanding capability, improving quality and delivering operating efficiencies for our differentiated engine alloys our customers rely on. “That’s a huge endorsement from those customers of our capabilities, their trust in us, and our long-term outlook.”
Financial Performance & Growth
Building upon a century of operations, ATI continues to grow rapidly. “Probably the biggest challenge is how we continue to position ourselves and ensure we bring assets online as the industry needs and demands more material,” says Fields.
She recently told shareholders that the company is now more focused, resilient, and competitive than it has been in the past decade, which is reflected in its earnings.
In 2025, ATI reached $4.6 billion in annual sales, the highest since 2012. The aerospace and defense sector made up 68% of Q4 2025 sales, up from 65% in Q4 2024.
The company also returned $470 million to shareholders through share buybacks in 2025 and has repurchased about $1 billion in shares since 2022.
According to its CEO, “ATI is positioned to drive higher earnings, margins, and cash flows in the year ahead and over the long term.”
“Our team continues to execute with discipline and focus. None of this progress would be possible without the dedication of our ATI team. Across our operations, our employees deliver safely, reliably and with high quality every day. Their commitment to continuous improvement strengthens our operational excellence and enhances the value we create for customers and shareholders.”
What Sets ATI Apart
ATI’s engagement across platforms and programs is unmatched. Collaborative innovation with customers allows ATI to stay ahead of industry trends and maintain a competitive moat.
Fields proudly notes, “We are on every airframe, we are in every engine program, and that combination allows us to really understand what the demand signals are and how the supply chain going, not just what’s been publicly announced, but we’re getting that continuous information from our customers.”
ATI’s long-term agreements and diversified position also make it essential across the industry. “For example, on the jet engine, there are seven alloys used in every engine, and we produce six of those seven alloys. For five of those seven, we are the sole supplier.”
The company’s strong relationships with customers enable ATI to develop ideas collaboratively. “This allows us to jointly develop new technologies, develop new alloys that really give us a head start and a wide moat from a competitive position because we’re there at the table from the very beginning.”
Operational Excellence and the Customer
ATI’s operational model is built around continuous improvement, agility, and innovation, with the customer at the center. “Everything begins with the customer,” Fields says. Her team’s motto, ‘One ATI’ is more than a phrase. “We align all our activities, focus, and priorities around what the customer needs to be successful,” Fields says. “Team collaboration really starts with what has to be true for us to be able to deliver for the customer, and that permeates throughout the entire organization, all the way up to my position here at my desk.”
Fields uses 80/20 analysis to prioritize resources for maximum customer impact. As CEO, she champions ATI’s Elevation improvement system, engaging the entire workforce to drive best practices and efficiency. New technologies are also accelerating this process. “We’re implementing AI to help us rapidly monitor and identify opportunities for improvement…to look for and predict where is our next opportunity or our next problem solving, so we can focus to continue to get more out of the assets we have today.”
“Our portfolio continues to evolve toward structurally attractive markets where performance, reliability, and technical depth matter most.”
Supply Chain Strategy and Resilience
ATI’s supply chain resilience and vertical integration help the company secure critical materials and maintain continuity even in volatile environments. “Our supply chain is very important to us. We’ve had to do a lot of work…to diversify our supply chains to improve their resiliency and robustness,” Fields says.
Quick adaptation has also proven crucial, whether responding to the Russian invasion of Ukraine or recent helium shortages caused by the Iran conflict: “So, not only having diversity of suppliers is important, we’re working on the diversity of processes so that we’re able to switch to other gases like argon instead of helium when that became short supply very quickly.”
Fields notes, “Unfortunately, right now, in the world of supply chain, you have to pay attention to all aspects, even the small ones, because not being able to get that supply can impact your overall operation.”
ATI’s Key Business Message
According to its CEO, ATI’s legacy of trust and partnership gives it a competitive advantage.
Her team recently collaborated with Pratt & Whitney on the Geared Turbo Fan (GTF) under tight deadlines and no capital investment, finding ways to increase output through supply chain collaboration. “That wouldn’t have been possible if we didn’t have the deep trust that we have with our customers and their confidence at coming in and saying, we’re going to share all our information. We’re going to share our productivity. We’re going to share our technology, even though in some cases we may compete to find the right solutions.”
“That trust comes from decades of work, both as a supplier, but maybe more importantly as co-developers on many of these alloys, as well as several of the processes that provide the cleanliness and quality, the materials that their customers rely on every single time.”
ATI also recently resolved a supply chain problem for two customers by using its improvement program to enhance productivity and meet urgent demand. “I just heard this week from that end customer, who was thanking us and telling my team that they would not be able to do what they’re doing without us, that we are critical to their success.”
Looking ahead, ATI is investing in the capabilities and materials science to help customers meet the next generation of challenges.
ATI’s vision remains focused on innovation, operational excellence, and customer success, and its CEO is confident the company will continue to lead in aerospace, defense, and specialty energy as the industries evolve.
