A veteran of the equipment industry, Rick Cook, recently took over the reigns at Atlanta JCB as president and general manager.

Cook has more than 35 years of experience in the equipment industry dating back to the early 1970s when he began his career working for International Harvester. In the late 1980s, Cook’s career path led him to working for JCB corporate with sales responsibilities primarily in the west coast region. He was a backhoe operator for the JCB Dancing Digger team.

Cook started a new JCB distributorship in the west and decided to move to the east coast to be closer to the North American headquarters of JCB and for greater opportunities in the Atlanta market.

“My belief in JCB lead me here,” Cook said. “They are an excellent worldwide company with an excellent range of machines that are ergonomically built with a complete focus on the operator’s needs. There’s just something appealing to me about working with a family owned manufacturing business like JCB, and having the machines manufactured here in the fine state of Georgia is appealing as well.”

Cook believes in JCB’s equipment, but said service is the most important thing.

“We want to represent the JCB worldwide standards by partnering with our customers and putting them first,” Cook said. “At Atlanta JCB, we will take advantage of what the factory has to offer because of its proximity. With JCB being Georgia based, it is a big plus for us.”