Flannery stated in a presentation shown live on Facebook that he wanted "to start with a fresh look around the company overall and, I think, with a sense of urgency," adding that “there are so many things we do well and have always done well and there are clearly some areas we need to improve on, and improve on quickly. No one's happy with the stock price right now or some of the cash pictures that we have had."

Stifel analyst Robert McCarthy noted to Reuters that GE's stock “underperformance” made the timing of the change unsurprising and in keeping with "investor fatigue with management's continued perceived ungainly portfolio actions."


Flannery's replacement at GE Healthcare, Kieran Murphy, is coming to the CEO and president spots from his role running Life Sciences. There he grew revenue and geographic expansion – with annual sales hitting over $4 billion in more than 100 countries.

Kieran “led the strategic combination of GE’s Life Sciences and Medical Diagnostics units, Kieran is universally respected across GE and has distinguished himself as a strong customer advocate with great commercial instincts. Alongside the outstanding team at GE Healthcare, we anticipate that the business will experience continued global growth under Kieran’s leadership.” noted Immelt in a statement.

“Kieran has proven to be a natural leader, and has been instrumental in the tremendous growth we’ve seen across GE Healthcare Life Sciences,” added Flannery.

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