Immelt, Jeffrey Robert, 1956-

Jeffrey Robert Immelt (born February 19, 1956) is an American business executive currently working as a venture partner at New Enterprise Associates. He stepped down as CEO of the U.S.-based conglomerate General Electric (GE) on August 1, 2017 and retired from his position as chairman of the board of GE on October 2, 2017. He was selected as GE's CEO by their board of directors in 2000 to replace Jack Welch upon Welch's retirement from GE. Previously, Immelt had headed up GE's Medical Systems division (now known as GE Healthcare) as its president and CEO.

Immelt was born in Cincinnati, the son of Donna Rosemary (née Wallace), a school teacher, and Joseph Francis Immelt, who managed the General Electric Aircraft Engines Division ("GEAE" is now known as GE Aviation).

Immelt attended Finneytown High School; he played football in college and was an offensive tackle. He earned an A.B. in Applied Mathematics and Economics cum laude from Dartmouth College graduating with the class of 1978; he was president of his fraternity, Phi Delta Alpha, and currently serves on the Dartmouth board of trustees.

During his years at Dartmouth he worked summers on a Ford assembly line in Cincinnati; after graduating he worked for Procter and Gamble before matriculating at Harvard for his MBA.

Immelt earned his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, graduating in 1982. He described business school as "one of the most intense times of your life."

Immelt had been with GE since 1982, when he graduated from Harvard with a Master of Business Administration degree. He held a number of increasingly senior positions in GE's plastics, appliances, and healthcare businesses. He became a GE officer in 1989, joined the GE Capital board in 1997 and took on the leadership of GE Healthcare before being named CEO.

The competition for the CEO position that Immelt won began when Jack Welch asked Gary Wendt, the head of GE Financial Services, Inc, then a $41 billion empire and GE's most profitable division, to resign, on the theory that he would overshadow Welch's other candidates. Immelt surpassed Robert Nardelli, who was so close to Welch that his nickname was "Little Jack", and James McNerney; Nardelli would leave GE to head Home Depot and then Chrysler, and McNerney left GE to lead 3M (before going on to lead Boeing). Immelt was selected by the GE Board in November, 2000, to succeed Welch as CEO of GE; he served as GE's president and chairman-elect for ten months before taking the position of chairman and CEO of GE on September 7, 2001. He retired, three months earlier than expected, as chairman of GE's board on October 2, 2017. He also concurrently stepped down from the board of Baker Hughes.

In February 2009, in the early days of the Obama administration, Immelt was appointed as a member to the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board to provide the president and his administration with advice and counsel in fixing America's economic downturn. When President Obama chose to put Jeffrey Immelt at the head of the Economic Advisory Board, he felt that Immelt had attributions in knowing what would help the global economy. Obama has reported that Immelt has emerged as one of his top economic advisors in regards to trying to rebuild America's economy.

On January 21, 2011, President Obama announced Immelt's appointment as chairman of his outside panel of economic advisers, succeeding former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker. The New York Times reported that Obama's appointment of Immelt was "another strong signal that he intends to make the White House more business-friendly." The council met a total of four times, with its final meeting on January 17, 2012. In 2013, the authorization for the council was not renewed, causing the council to be permanently shut down.