Maybe there”™s something in the Boston water, or perhaps the feng shui of its new Bay State headquarters isn”™t generating good vibes? In any event, Fairfield”™s most notable former resident has announced it”™s on its third chief executive within a 14-month period.
General Electric”™s board of directors unanimously voted to jettison CEO John Flannery, who took over his job in August 2017 from Jeff Immelt, who held the post for 17 years. Flannery”™s brief leadership tenure was marked with embarrassments for the company, including a dividend cut last November and the removal of the company from the Dow Jones Industrial Average in June after 111 years. In May, Flannery announced that the market for GE’s large gas-powered turbines was expected to remain weak for the next two years, which caused the company”™s stock to plummet by 7 percent. CNBC reported that GE shares were at a 9-year low last week.
“GE Power’s current goodwill balance is approximately $23 billion and the goodwill impairment charge is likely to constitute substantially all of this balance,” said the company in a statement issued on Monday. “The impairment charge is not yet finalized and remains subject to review.”
GE has reached outside of the company for Flannery”™s replacement and named former Danaher CEO Lawrence Culp as his successor. Culp, who joined the GE board in April as lead director, is also a senior lecturer at Harvard Business School and a senior adviser at Bain Capital Private Equity, as well as a member of the T. Rowe Price Group board of directors.
And while General Electric”™s headquarters is no longer in Fairfield, the company still employs about 600 people at its Norwalk locations.
