Richard H. Fearon is vice chairman and chief financial and planning officer for Eaton Corporation, a $15.4 billion global diversified power management company.

Fearon was named to the position in January 2009. In this role, he has responsibility for the accounting, control, corporate development, information systems, internal audit, investor relations, strategic planning, tax and treasury functions.

Most recently, Fearon was executive vice president and chief financial and planning officer, Eaton Corporation, a position he held since 2002.

Fearon joined Eaton from Willow Place Partners, a Menlo Park, California-based corporate advisory firm he founded in 2001. From 1995 through 2000, he was with Transamerica Corporation, where he had most recently served as senior vice president of corporate development. From 1990 to 1995, Fearon was general manager, corporate development, for Singapore-based NatSteel Ltd. and vice chairman, NatSteel Chemicals.

Prior to that, he worked with management consulting firms Booz Allen Hamilton in Singapore and The Boston Consulting Group in Los Angeles and served as director of strategic planning for The Walt Disney Company in Burbank, California.

Fearon sits on the boards of PolyOne Corporation, Hawken School, The Playhouse Square Foundation, and the Cleveland Museum of Art. He serves as vice chairman of the Playhouse Square Foundation, responsible for strategic planning; chairman of the investment committee at Hawken School; vice-chairman of the finance committee of the Cleveland Museum of Art; and chairman of the Audit Committee at PolyOne. Fearon also chairs the CFO Council of the Manufacturers Alliance, a trade organization of leading U.S. manufacturing companies, and serves as the Northeast Ohio Commissioner on the Third Frontier Commission of the State of Ohio.

Fearon received a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics, with distinction, from Stanford University, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He later received a Master of Business Administration degree from Harvard Business School, where he was a Baker Scholar, and a Juris Doctor degree, cum laude, from Harvard Law School. Fearon is a member of the California Bar.