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Jeffrey
Immelt
became the ninth Chairman of General Electric
in 2001. He began working at General Electric
in 1982 and rose through the ranks to
become the CEO almost twenty years later.
Jeffrey
Immelt was born on February 19, 1956 in
Cincinnati, Ohio and grew up in a household
already under the watchful eye of General
Electric. His father worked for the General
Electric Aircraft Engines Division and
undoubtedly influenced Immelt's vision
for the company. As a boy, Immelt enjoyed
sports and exhibited strong leadership
skills both in and out of the classroom.
He went on to study applied mathematics
at Dartmouth College where he became president
of his fraternity, Phi Delta Alpha.
During
college Immelt worked in the Ford Motor
assembly plant over the summers until
his graduation in 1978. He worked for
Procter & Gamble for a brief period
before attending graduate school at Harvard
University. Immelt graduated with an MBA
from Harvard in 1982 and immediately took
a job at General Electric. Although he
started working at the corporate office
in Fairfield, Connecticut, Jeffrey Immelt
was eventually moved to the office in
Dallas where he met his future wife, Andrea
Allen. They married in 1986.
Jeff
Immelt worked his way up from district
sales manager to vice president of GE
Appliances. When he arrived at the division
in 1989, Immelt was faced with the recent
recall of millions of refrigerators as
a result of failed compressors. His tact
and managerial skills earned him the respect
of the workers during this difficult time
and he was known for giving memorable
motivational speeches at the factory from
a forklift.
Following
his success at the Appliances division,
Immelt moved to the GE Plastics division
in 1992. Although he failed to meet financial
goals, Immelt continued to help GE grow
as a company. He moved to the Medical
Systems division and was named president
and CEO of that division in 1997. GE Medical
Systems (GEM) needed financial guidance
and under the supervision of Immelt, GEM
became one of the world's most influential
and successful medical-imaging companies.
Immelt helped lead GEM's revolutionary
mammogram technologies into mainstream
medical care and brought the world's fastest
CAT-scan machine to the marketplace.
With
his overwhelming success, Immelt gained
recognition both inside and outside of
the company. With the impending retirement
of the acclaimed CEO Jack Welch, Immelt
became one of a half dozen candidates
for the position. By 2000, the list had
been narrowed down to three people and
Immelt was a clear favorite. GE announced
Immelt's selection as CEO on November
27, 2000.
Immelt
fought pressure to sell off divisions
of GE and focus on core products, saying
that each one of GE's companies was a
part of a collective whole. Immelt helped
keep GE afloat during scandals and financial
crises in a post-9/11 America, giving
him a difficult first year as CEO. Despite
the hardships, Immelt continued to grow
the GE brand and revolutionize the internal
structure of the company. He kept managers
in divisions longer so they could feel
the consequences of their decisions whether
good or bad. He also revived GE's old
Schenectady lab in New York and renamed
it the Global Research Center where scientists
experiment with everything from nanotechnology
to hydrogen power. Immelt felt that GE
needed to diversify it's holdings even
more and helped build a new multi-media
division that included cable-television
channels.
For
the first few years as GE CEO, Jeffrey
R. Immelt focused on using technology
better, diversifying management within
the company, and reaching the consumer
in order to connect with their needs.
He has focused on bringing different people
and faces into stronger leadership positions
within the company in order to help give
GE not only new ideas but also new faces
to relate to the public. Although he has
been compared to his predecessor, Jack
Welch, Immelt has clearly created his
own style of managing General Electric.
This Jeffrey Immelt biography may
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