GE Chairman Immelt to speak on competitiveness at Baker Institute lecture March 30

BY FRANZ BROTZEN
Rice News staff

General Electric Chairman and CEO Jeffrey Immelt, who is leading President Barack Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, will speak March 30 at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy.

	JEFFREY IMMELT

Immelt’s lecture, titled “A Blueprint for Competitiveness,” will begin at 6 p.m. in Baker Hall’s Doré Commons.

Immelt has served as the ninth chairman of General Electric (GE) Company since September 2001. He came to GE in 1982 and has held several global leadership positions, including roles in GE’s plastics, appliance and medical businesses. In 1989 Immelt became an officer of GE and joined the GE Capital board in 1997. In November 2000 he was appointed president and chairman-elect of GE. Immelt has been named one of the “World’s Best CEOs” three times by Barron’s. Since he began serving as chief executive officer, GE has been 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.

In January, Obama named Immelt to lead the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, which is tasked with getting Americans back to work and strengthening the U.S. economy. A member of The Business Council, Immelt also is on the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

He earned a B.A. in applied mathematics from Dartmouth College in 1978 and an MBA from Harvard University in 1982.

Immelt’s lecture is part of the Shell Distinguished Lecture Series.

Rice faculty, staff and students who want to attend must RSVP by email (bipprsvp@rice.edu), by fax (713-348-5993) or on the Web at http://bakerinstitute.org/events/shell-distinguished-lecture-series-presentation-a-blueprint-for-competitiveness. A webcast of the event can also be seen at this address.