FAIRFIELD, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 23, 2004--GE Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt has named Brackett B. Denniston as GE's Vice President-General Counsel. He succeeds Ben W. Heineman, Jr., who will assume the new position of Senior Vice President for Law and Public Affairs.
Mr. Denniston will be responsible for the worldwide GE legal organization and for all GE legal operations, reporting directly to Mr. Immelt. He will become a member of GE's Corporate Executive Council and the GE Capital Corporation Board of Directors. Mr. Denniston will continue as chair of the Company's Policy Compliance Review Board.
Given the increasing importance and complexity of public issues facing global companies like GE, Mr. Immelt has asked Mr. Heineman to focus his efforts on in-depth assessments of key GE public affairs matters - for example, core Company policies such as governance, globalization and social responsibility and priority public policy issues.
"Brackett has done an outstanding job as our leader of litigation and preventive law," Mr. Immelt said. "He will bring the same high professional standards and exemplary integrity to his new position."
Mr. Immelt added, "After more than 15 years of distinguished service as general counsel, I am delighted that Ben will continue to work with me on our most challenging public issues, while still being available to give us the benefit of his extensive GE experience."
Mr. Heineman said: "Brackett has been a pillar of strength in GE Legal as head of litigation and compliance, and I am excited that he can now apply those leadership skills across the global legal organization. He will have the privilege, as have I, of working with the best corporate legal team in the world."
Prior to joining GE in 1996, Mr. Denniston was the Chief Legal Counsel to Governor William F. Weld of Massachusetts from 1993 to 1996. He previously was a partner at Goodwin, Procter in Boston, where he specialized in complex financial and securities matters and litigation. Prior to that, he served as Chief of the Major Frauds Unit in the United States Attorney's Office, where he was in charge of prosecutions relating to securities and financial fraud.
Mr. Denniston is a graduate of the Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review, and of Kenyon College. After graduation, he served as a law clerk to U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Herbert Y.C. Choy. He is a trustee of Kenyon College and the Boston Bar Foundation.
Mr. Heineman has been Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of GE since 1987. Previously he was a managing partner at Sidley & Austin in Washington, D.C., focusing on Supreme Court and test case litigation. Prior to that he was the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation at the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare.
Mr. Heineman is a graduate of Harvard College, Oxford University and Yale Law School (1971). A former Rhodes Scholar, editor-in-chief of the Yale Law Journal and law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, he is the author of books on British race relations and the American presidency. Mr. Heineman is on the boards of the Center for Strategic and International Studies and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
GE (NYSE: GE) is a diversified technology and services company dedicated to creating products that make life better. From aircraft engines and power generation to financial services, medical imaging, television programming and plastics, GE operates in more than 100 countries and employs more than 300,000 people worldwide. For more information, visit the company's Web site at http://www.ge.com.
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