Jeffrey R. Immelt

Jeffrey R. Immelt is the ninth chairman of General Electric, "a post he has held since September 7, 2001.

"Mr. Immelt has held several global leadership positions since coming to GE in 1982, including roles in GE's Plastics, Appliance, and Medical businesses. In 1989 he became an officer of GE and joined the GE Capital Board in 1997. A couple years later, in 2000, Mr. Immelt was appointed president and chief executive officer.

"Barron's twice named Mr. Immelt one of the "World's Best CEOs" and since he began serving as chief executive officer, GE was named "America's Most Admired Company" in a poll conducted by FORTUNE magazine and one of "The World's Most Respected Companies" in polls by Barron's and the Financial Times.

"Mr. Immelt is also a member of The Business Council and he is on the board of three non-profit organizations: Catalyst, devoted to advancing women in business, Robin Hood, focused on addressing poverty in New York City, and the New York Federal Reserve Bank.

"Mr. Immelt earned a B.A. degree in applied mathematics from Dartmouth College in 1978 and an M.B.A. from Harvard University in 1982. He and his wife Andrea have one daughter."

Future of nuclear power

In an interview in 2013 Immelt stated:

"The issue is always one of economics and, for right now, nuclear is a sovereign business, a government to government business. It's not really a commercial business. There's a liability regime, there's government approval processes and things like that. To me the future of nuclear is very much about where governments want to spend the money, as it is about safety or technology. 'If governments want to use their own balance sheet to promote nuclear power, it's going to go forward. But if governments don't want to use their own balance sheet to promote nuclear power, it's not going to go forward."

Affiliations

• Director, Robin Hood Foundation
• Patron, World Sustainable Development Forum