Jeff Immelt

Jeffrey Robert Immelt (born February 19, 1956) is an American manufacturing executive working as a venture partner at New Enterprise Associates. He previously was the CEO of General Electric from 2001 to 2017, and the CEO of GE's Medical Systems division from 1997 to 2000. Immelt's tenure saw GE's largest divestments in the company's history, as the company sold almost two-thirds of its subsidiaries and assets.

Immelt was born on February 19, 1956, in Cincinnati, the son of Donna Rosemary (née Wallace), a school teacher, and Joseph Francis Immelt, who managed the General Electric Aircraft Engines Division.

Immelt attended Finneytown Secondary Campus. There he captained the football and basketball teams. In college he played football and was an offensive tackle. He earned an A.B. in applied mathematics and economics cum laude from Dartmouth College in 1978. He was president of his fraternity, Phi Delta Alpha.

During his years at Dartmouth he worked summers on a Ford assembly line in Cincinnati; after graduating he worked for Procter & Gamble, where he shared a cubicle with Steve Ballmer, who went on to become CEO of Microsoft. He obtained an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1982 and described business school as "one of the most intense times of your life." He was later offered to work for Morgan Stanley, which he declined. Instead, he wanted to work for General Electric like his father.

Immelt joined General Electric in 1982, working in GE's plastics, appliances, and healthcare businesses. He became a GE corporate officer in 1989, joined the GE Capital board in 1997 and took the reins of the corporate leadership of GE Healthcare before assuming his position as CEO in 2001.

Four days after Immelt became CEO, the September 11 attacks took place which cost GE's insurance division $600 million, killed two employees and directly affected the company's Aircraft Engines sector. After becoming CEO, Immelt offered an expanded set of financial reports in addition to GE's traditional format.

Immelt participated actively in mergers and acquisitions, purchasing Amersham PLC for $9.5 billion in 2004 and Alstom's power business for approximately €12.4 billion in 2015. Immelt sold GE's plastics business for $11.6 billion in 2007, NBC Universal for $8 billion in 2013, and GE's appliances business for $3.3 billion in 2014. In 2015, GE announced it would sell its real estate holdings for $26.5 billion and most of GE Capital's assets.

During Immelt's tenure as CEO, the company's financial performance suffered considerably, as shares of GE dropped 30 percent, while the S&P 500 rose by 134% over the same period of time, which had led to suspicions of his managerial competencies to be called into question when running the day-to-day operations of the corporation. GE restated its earnings in 2005 and agreed to pay the SEC $50 million to settle allegations of accounting fraud in 2009.

GE received aid from the Federal Reserve while not paying federal income taxes became a political issue in the 2016 presidential campaign, although GE did pay taxes in other jurisdictions. At the end of 2012, over $100 billion had been kept offshore to avoid a special federal repatriation tax. In 2015, GE announced a repatriation program for part of its cash balances. In 2016, GE moved its headquarters from Connecticut to Massachusetts, citing Connecticut's tax increases.

Immelt was initially a top candidate to become CEO of Uber, replacing founder Travis Kalanick. He was initially Kalanick's favorite for the post, in part because he was still open to Kalanick still having a significant role. However, Immelt's presentation before the board was poorly received; one director called it "a bad joke," and even Kalanick soured on him. Immelt withdrew from consideration after a director privately told him he had no chance at getting the job.

On February 7, 2018, Immelt became the executive chairman of the board at athenahealth, a private American health care company that provides network-enabled services for point-of-care mobile apps. Immelt joined the board of directors of Radiology Partners two weeks later. On June 6, 2018, Immelt was named executive chairman of athenahealth. Athenahealth was later acquired by Veritas Capital in 2019.

Immelt became a board member of Tuya Smart in September 2019. Immelt attended the Consumer Electronics Show in 2020 on behalf of Tuya Smart.

On June 30, 2020, Immelt was announced as an advisor to Built Robotics, a company develops vehicular automation hardware and software. He joined Eric Sellman, Vice President of Civil at Mortenson, in the role.

Immelt is also an active philanthropist. He is on the board of two non-profit organizations. He was a Charter Trustee of his alma mater, Dartmouth, from 2008 to 2016. He has also served Dartmouth on its Alumni Council and as a class officer.

Immelt has spoken about the benefits of football to his career. He announced a series of initiatives with NFL Commissioner Goodell including a GE investment of $40 million to develop diagnostic equipment for use in head trauma injuries, and GE's participation in a separate $20 million effort to develop safer helmets and other equipment.

The GE Foundation has been praised for its charitable contributions under Immelt's leadership.

Immelt has returned to his hometown High School, Finneytown, to contribute to the Finneytown Schools Education Foundation. The Foundation established the Jeff Immelt Award for leadership in football.

Immelt was chairman of The Business Council from 2005 to 2006.

Jeff Immelt has earned significant honors throughout his career, beginning with his graduation from Dartmouth cum laude and earning the Earl Hamilton Varsity Award, as a college football player, for friendship and character. Later in 2002, he received the Robert Fletcher Award from Dartmouth's Thayer School of Engineering.

Barron's has named Immelt one of the "World's Best CEOs" three times; other outlets have criticized his performance. He is a member of The American Academy of Arts & Sciences. The Financial Times named him "Man of the Year" in 2003. Immelt was named to Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world in 2009.

In 2009, Immelt won the Oslo Business for Peace Award, an award chosen by winners of the Nobel Prizes in Economics and Peace and given to managerial executives in the private sector who have demonstrated transformative and positive change through ethical business practices.

Immelt was awarded the 2014 American Football Coaches Association Tuss McLaughry Award, given to a distinguished American (or Americans) for the highest distinction in service to others. In accepting the award, he said "I am a product of football and I owe a great debt of gratitude to that system. What I learned playing football enters my life every day."

In April 2015, Immelt won the 20th edition of the Leonardo International Prize "as a foreigner who reinforced his country's cultural and economic ties with Italy."

Immelt is married to his wife Andrea and they have one daughter, Sarah. The two met as colleagues in General Electric. They lived in New Canaan, Connecticut, until 2015. They then purchased a home in Boston.