Since coming to GE in 1982, following in the footsteps of his father, "a long-time GE guy." he has held roles in GE's plastics, appliance, and healthcare businesses. He started in GE's corporate office in Fairfield, Connecticut, where he worked as an internal marketing consultant, moving through the sales ranks until, in 1989 Jeffrey was named vice president of GE Appliances. He arrived at the division just as it began a recall of millions of refrigerators due to a mass compressor failure —one of the largest recalls in GE history. Jeffrey however quickly earned the respect of his co-workers for both his care in managing the replacement of the compressors, and for regular and rousing motivational speeches delivered from the factory floor atop a forklift truck. Jeffrey left GE Appliances for GE Plastics in 1992, a difficult role during a time of inflation. He continued to attract attention when he was named president and CEO of GE Medical Systems in 1997. When he arrived at GEM, the division was in its third consecutive year of flat revenues; when he left, after, a series of 60 acquisitions, GE was the world's most successful medical-imaging company.

In 1994, Jeffrey entered the much-publicised rat race to succeed Jack Welch, one of the world’s most admired CEOs. At 45 years of age, Immelt was the youngest of the three top candidates in the running by 10 years, but this was no barrier to his succession in September 2001.

Jeffrey took the helm as GE just days before the 9/11 attacks. The atrocity killed two employees, damaged the company’s Aircraft Engines sector, and cost the insurance arm of the company over $600 million. Yet Jeffrey took important lessons from the disaster which proved formative of his managerial approach: "9/11 marked the end of an era of individual freedom and the beginning of personal responsibility. You lead today by building teams and placing others first. It's not about you."

From the chaos of the economic and political climate in 2001 to 2002 – with financial-reporting scandals making headlines, stock prices tumbling and the uncertainty surrounding September’s terrorist attacks damaging big business – Jeffrey quickly established four goals for the company: to diversify the business mix; to better utilise technology; to get closer to customers; and to increase diversity among top management.

During his first year, Jeffrey initiated $9 billion in acquisitions and diversified the company by adding segments involved in wind power, security, commercial and consumer finance, water filtration, and oil and gas services. This set the tone for a portfolio management strategy that, over the next decade, would replace commoditized and risky businesses in plastics and insurance, as well those peripheral to General Electric’s core operations, such as television, with companies which would bolster a strong industrial core. In 2011, GE's sold its majority stake in NBC Universal to Comcast for $6.5 billion, reinvesting the money in oil and gas. "Media is a great industry," Jeffrey says, "but I would go to meetings towards the end and I would come out [with] two good ideas on how GE could make a difference to running our media business better. [But] I would leave a meeting and I would have 23 ideas on how GE could make our oil and gas business grow faster."

Today’s General Electric under Jeffrey Immelt could not be more different from that under Paul Welch. More than 20% of the $126 billion in revenue the company generated in 2001 came from plastics; after these divestments, the figure today is marginal. Aviation, transportation, health care and energy contributed 65% of revenue last year, up from 50% at the turn of the millennium. Jeffrey has also significantly downsized GE Capital. He also invested heavily in technology, reviving the once-famous Schenectady, New York research lab, birthplace of the X-ray tube and tungsten light. The lab was renamed the Global Research Center, and GE scientists have lead the way in projects involving nanotechnology, photovoltaics, hydrogen power, advanced propulsion, and other innovations. Labs have also been built in Germany, China and India.

To motivate such innovation on a management level, Jeffrey changed the way GE appointed its leaders. Instead of rotating managers through several divisions, he kept them in place longer, creating field specialists. As a result, managers are encouraged to adopt long-term strategies, and exposed to both the full consequences of both their improvements and mistakes.

Mr. Immelt has been named one of the "World's Best CEOs" three times by Barron's. GE under Jeff has been named "America's Most Admired Company" in a poll conducted by Fortune magazine, and is currently ranked at 16. In polls by Barron's and the Financial Times, General Electric regularly features among "The World's Most Respected Companies".

As of February 2009, Jeffrey served for two years on the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board, providing the Obama administration with counsel in reversing America's economic downturn. Jeffrey so impressed during this time that, when the board was revamped in 2011 as the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, he was delegated head of the group, replacing former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker. Obama said of Jeffrey that he “understands what it takes for America to compete in the global economy.” Jeffrey has applied the principles learned at the helm of General Electric to US economic policy, looking to improve America’s green energy credentials, and supporting the president’s goal of doubling American exports to more than $2 trillion in five years. After all, “we’ve done it in the last five years as a company,” he remarks.

In July 2012, Jeffrey was debating the merits of nuclear energy. He commented in the FT that nuclear power is so expensive compared with other forms of energy that it has become “really hard” to justify in a “gas and wind world”. He says, “I think some combination of gas, and either wind or solar…that’s where we see most countries around the world going.”

Standing at 6”4’, Jeffrey played American football at Dartmouth and was president of Phi Delta Alpha fraternity. He remains fanatical about sport to this day, and is a self-confessed ESPN addict. He is also passionate about the environment and education. “I’m a voracious reader,” Jeffrey remarks, recalling that the roots of GE’s “ecomagination” business initiative can be traced in part to 3,000 pages of reports written on global warming, brought along on a family holiday in 2010. Asked what he would be doing if he hadn’t joined GE, he replies, “I would probably teach business, somewhere, someplace, somehow.” These two interests have coloured his attitude towards corporate social responsibility: “if you can tie CSR to innovation for the environment, or making secondary schools better or big things like that, then I think it has extra oomph.”

He and his wife, Andrea, have one daughter, Sarah.

Leading General Electric through worst period of economic turmoil since the Great Depression, Jeffrey has come to understand the importance of what he calls context, and the ability to change according to its demands: “The most important thing I've learned since becoming CEO is context. It's how your company fits in with the world and how you respond to it.” Though "the past 10 years have been a mess from a macro standpoint", afflicting company revenues heavily and stripping the conglomerate of its triple-A credit rating in 2008, Jeffrey advocates a policy of adaptive resilience: “Who gets better when times are tough, and who gives up when times are tough? That's a standard we hold ourselves to, but we've also seen others be able to repurpose and change. I think people have more of an appreciation for resiliency today. Every company recognizes that you're not always going in a straight line. It's the people that keep paddling, even when the tide's against them, that have done well.” Jeffrey has been unafraid of tough calls. In 2009, he cut GE's quarterly dividend by nearly 70% to 10 cents a share, a "brutal, brutal, brutal, brutal, brutal decision”, but a “necessary” one nonetheless.

Jeffrey believes in a interventionist approach: "Good leaders are never afraid to intervene personally on things that are important. Michael Dell can tell you how many computers were shipped from Singapore yesterday. You don't have to do all the work. You've got 300,000 people to do that. But you have to understand how work is getting done."

Under Jeffrey's tenure, GE has also expanded jobs overseas while cutting positions in the U.S. It is this internationalist perspective which has partially motivated his ambitious acquisition program in the oil and gas sector: "I think [oil and gas] prices are going to be higher, it is a global game, and our technology makes a difference." However, Jeffrey understands the need to characterise GE as an American company, even as it pursues global opportunities.”We are an American company,” he says, “but, in order to be successful we’ve got to win in every corner of the world.”

Jeffrey has a reputation for a down-to-earth, quiet and considerate approach to management, though he has been known to express his disapproval by physically tearing up unsatisfactory business plans. "Ripping sounds always help people focus the mind," he says.

1. Less than 5% of GE Capital’s loans involve General Electric products, the branch has encountered difficulty attracting investors and it seems that, during your tenure, the industrial segment has supplanted the financials arm at the centre of the company. What does the future look like for GE Capital?

2. How important will it be in the years to come for General Electric to identify itself as an international company, and can you see any potential problems with this stance?

3. There was widespread speculation in 2011 that your appointment as the head of the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness would mark the end of your time as GE CEO. Has there any conflict between these two roles?