Battle

Lincoln Electric, the 109 year old manufacturer of arc-welding products best known for its employee incentive system, recently named Anthony Battle director of internal audit.

Battle, who joined Lincoln last year, previously held audit positions at Owens Corning and TRW, including senior auditor. Earlier in his career, he held audit and accounting positions at First Energy and Smith & Company, respectively.

Lincoln has recently made news for distributing its 70th consecutive profit-sharing bonus, part of its "Incentive Management" system that is widely-studied in business schools and industrial management circles. The incentive payment, which represented an average bonus of approximately $10,800 per employee, came at a time when many companies were scaling back such rewards; according to a recent survey by Mercer Human Resources Consulting, about one-third of firms are reducing annual incentive bonuses this year.