GE names new CEO

BOSTON, June 13, 2017 – GE stock rose by about 3.6% on Monday after the company named John Flannery, current President and CEO of GE Healthcare, as its future Chairman and CEO.

Flannery, who will assume the position of CEO on August 1 and the position of Chairman and CEO on January 1, 2018, will be joined by a new vice-chair, Jeff Bornstein, who is currently GE’s CFO.

Flannery replaces Jeff Immelt, who is to retire from the company after 16 years at the helm.

“[Immelt] 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,” said Flannery in a statement.

“In the next few months, my focus will be on listening to investors, customers and employees to determine the next steps for GE.”

Yet during the course of Immelt’s tenure, GE’s stock went down some 27%, making it the worst performer on the Dow Jones Industrial Average of which it is the only remaining founding member, MarketWatch noted.

Industry analysts offered divergent views on the replacement.

“This company is lost, and until we have positive forecasts in sales and earnings, I don’t want to go near it,” Louis Navellier of consultancy Navellier & Associates said, quoted by CNBC.

Others, however, saw the potential for longer-term growth.

“This is a business that really focuses on the needs of humanity,” Jeff Windau, an expert at Edward Jones, was quoted as saying in the same CNBC report.

“So we’re looking at it from a long-term perspective, growth in transportation, energy, health care.”

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