Jeff Immelt To Step Down As CEO Of General Electric

A year after moving General Electric out of its Fairfield headquarters, Jeff Immelt has announced he will retire as CEO at the end of the year. Immelt will remain chairman of the board through his retirement from the company on Dec. 31. John Flannery, current President and CEO of GE Healthcare, has been named CEO of the company effective Aug. 1 and Chairman and CEO effective Jan. 1, 2018, GE announced in a press release on Monday. Flannery is a Fairfield University graduate. He graduated in 1983 from the Dolan School of Business and is also a 1987 graduate of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Immelt, 61, who became CEO in 2001, led GE into its transformation into a more digitally focused company. He announced last January that GE would move from its Fairfield home of 42 years to Boston to be at the center of an “ecosystem that shares our aspirations.” (To sign up for Fairfield breaking news alerts and more, click here.)

GE also announced on Monday that current CFO Jeff Bornstein has been promoted to Vice Chair of GE. Monday’s leadership announcements are the result of a succession plan that has been run by the GE Board of Directors since 2011, according to the press release.

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Flannery, 55, began his career at GE Capital in 1987 where he focused on evaluating risk for leveraged buy-outs. In the 1990s, he was a leader in the corporate restructuring and workout group, where he was known for his negotiating skills and ability to improve companies’ operations, according to the news release. In 1997, he moved to Argentina where he successfully led GE’s Equity business in Latin America and the overall GE Capital business for Argentina and Chile.

“Today’s announcement is the greatest honor of my career,” Flannery said in a statement. “I am privileged to have spent the last 16 years at the company working for Jeff, one of the greatest business leaders of our time. He has transformed the GE portfolio, globalized the company and created a vision for the GE of the future by positioning the company to lead in digital and additive manufacturing. In the next few months, my focus will be on listening to investors, customers and employees to determine the next steps for GE.”

Read more at the GE website here.