JESSICA MERTURI
Staff Writer
For this year’s graduation, Seaver college will welcome Jeffrey R. Immelt, chairperson and CEO of General Electric Co., as there speaker and honorary degree recipient.
GE, with its headquarters located in Fairfield, Conn., has become one of the world’s most flourishing corporations. With advances in business divisions such as finance, health care, energy, insurance, manufacturing, media, entertainment, technology and transportation.
GE is the parent company of NBC and controls companies that produce major appliances, lighting and telephones.
Earning his degree from Dartmouth College in applied mathematics in 1978, and receiving his MBA from Harvard University in 1982, Immelt began his career with GE immediately.
Throughout his years at GE, he held several positions in GE’s plastic, appliance and medical businesses. After joining GE Capitals Board in 1997, Immelt served as president and CEO of GE Medical Systems.
In 2001, Immelt was appointed CEO, taking the place of John F. Welch. Two years later, “Financial Times” named him Man of the Year.
In addition to his demanding job, Immelt also spends his time serving two non-profit organizations. He is on the board of Catalyst, a group that assists women in the business world. And he also works closely with Robin Hood, an organization that focuses on those living in poverty in New York City.
“We have eight commencements a year,” President Andrew K. Benton said, “and it’s a significant challenge finding a good speaker. Choosing Jeff Immelt was easy.”
Benton, who extended the invitation to Immelt said he did so because not only is Immelt the CEO of the largest corporation in the United States but also because he is a moral and interesting person.
Benton said one of his goals of inviting a speaker has been to keep the discipline from which the speaker comes from varied throughout the years, he said. For example, last year John Payson represented a success in the arts. Prior to that, Fred Payson, the civil rights attorney of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr., represented law. Jeffrey Immelt embodies a successful individual from the business field, Benton said.
“It’s a good opportunity for business majors to hear from such a high-powered individual,” senior Giovahn Barboza, a senior.
As an International Business major, Barboza said it’s important for people in the business field to hear from such a successful person like Immelt because it’s someone he and his peers aspire to be.
“GE is such a large corporation,” Barboza continued. “It’s says a lot about Pepperdine to get him to speak.”
Although fellow senior, Michelle Casper, wasn’t familiar with the CEO of GE, she said she still thinks he will be someone worth hearing, since he has done something right to get to his position.
04-13-2006