The 2015 Pension 40: Jeffrey Immelt

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Jeffrey Immelt
Chairman and Chief Executive / General Electric Co.
Last year: Not ranked

For the past five years, General Electric Co.’s Jeffrey Immelt, 59, has been perhaps the highest-profile CEO to tackle what he described in 2010 as a “drag” on his company’s earnings: corporate pensions. In 2011, GE shuttered its defined benefit plan to new employees and changed how it reported pension outlays. But the problem persists. With $48 billion in assets, GE has the fourth-largest corporate defined benefit plans in the U.S. and is running a $15.8 billion deficit. This year, after union negotiations and cuts to health care payments for beneficiaries over 65, Immelt spoke about the “headwinds” of large annual benefit costs at GE’s annual meeting: “We always want our pension plan to be strong and supported, and it’s that way today. And it will always be that way.” Critics point out that Immelt and other executives are eligible for a so-called supplementary pension plan if they remain with GE until age 60. Even as the company was cutting health care outlays, Immelt’s pay doubled in 2014, to $37.3 million, largely thanks to an $18.4 million rise in the value of his pension payout and deferred pay, which the company attributed to changing interest rates and an actuarial adjustment. As of 2014, after 32 years at GE, Immelt had accumulated $1.8 million in the defined benefit plan; $70.3 million in the supplementary plan, which is unfunded; and $1.78 million in a third retirement fund. In September, GE announced it was selling its $115 billion asset management business, which oversees pension investments and other assets — part of a larger retreat from financial services. The proceeds, which could be as much as $500 million, will go toward the defined benefit obligation.

The 2015 Pension 40 Click below to view profiles

1. Bruce Rauner Illinois 2. John & Laura Arnold Laura and John Arnold Foundation 3. Chris Christie New Jersey 4. Randi Weingarten AmericanFederation of Teachers 5. Phyllis Borzi U.S. Department of Labor

6. Kevin de León California 7. Alejandro García Padilla Commonwealth ofPuerto Rico 8. Laurence Fink BlackRock 9. Rahm Emanuel Chicago 10. Sean McGarvey North AmericanBuilding Trades Unions

11. John Kline Minnesota 12. J. Mark Iwry U.S. TreasuryDepartment 13. Damon Silvers AFL-CIO 14. Jeffrey Immelt General Electric Co. 15. Joshua Gotbaum Brookings Institution

16. Robin Diamonte United Technologies Corp. 17. Mark Mullet Washington 18. Terry O’Sullivan Laborers’ International Union of North America 19. Raymond Dalio Bridgewater Associates 20. Ted Wheeler Oregon

21. Thomas Nyhan Central States Southeast and Southwest Areas Pension Fund 22. Karen Ferguson & Karen Friedman Pensions Rights Center 23. Randy DeFrehn National Coordinating Committee forMultiemployer Plans 24. Robert O’Keef Motorola Solutions 25. Caitlin Long Morgan Stanley

26. Kenneth Feinberg The Law Offices of Kenneth R. Feinberg 27. Orrin Hatch Utah 28. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend Center for Retirement Initiatives, Georgetown University 29. Ian Lanoff Groom Law Group 30. Joshua Rauh Stanford Graduate School of Business

31. Ted Eliopoulos California Public Employees’ Retirement System 32. Edward (Ted) Siedle Benchmark Financial Services 33. Teresa Ghilarducci New School for Social Research 34. Denise Nappier Connecticut 35. W. Thomas Reeder Jr. Pension BenefitGuaranty Corp.

36. Hank Kim National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems 37. Paul Singer Elliott Management Corp. 38. Bailey Childers National PublicPension Coalition 39. Amy Kessler Prudential Financial 40. Judy Mares U.S. Labor Department