General Electric Co. CEO Jeffrey Immelt earned $33 million in 2015 as he accelerated a dramatic transformation of the industrial giant while boosting the value of the company’s shares.
Excluding a change in pension value, Immelt’s adjusted compensation rose 14% to $23.4 million, GE said Monday in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. His base salary of $3.8 million and bonus of $5.4 million bonus were little changed from the previous year.
“Immelt performed extremely well in 2015 with one of the best performance years in the company’s history,” GE said in the filing. Under his watch, GE boosted its market value by $40 billion during the year and expanded industrial profit margins, earnings and revenue, the company said.
Immelt, 60, reshaped GE in 2015 around industrial manufacturing and data analytics while working to shed the bulk of the GE Capital finance arm. The company reached deals to unload more than $150 billion of lending assets and closed the $10.3 billion acquisition of Alstom SA’s energy business.
GE also launched a search for a new headquarters last year after Immelt said the business climate in its home state of Connecticut had become unfavorable. The company announced plans in January 2016 to relocate to Boston from Fairfield, a move the CEO said might help GE recruit in the technology industry.
The company’s shares surged 23% last year, outpacing the 0.7% decline in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.
Immelt’s total payout of $33 million was 11% less than a year earlier because the value of his pension rose at a slower rate in 2015. His realized compensation, or income reported to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, was $10 million.
In other GE news, the company announced plans to create 160 jobs in Chicago focusing on digital advancements in transportation and healthcare. The company's Chicago office will lead the GE Transportation Digital Solutions business.
“These investments are evidence of Chicago’s talent depth, innovation and growing digital ecosystem,” GE Transportation president and CEO Jamie Miller said. “Chicago’s global business community, research universities, and strong depth in the transportation sector make it an ideal location for continuing to cultivate a diverse and dynamic digital workforce.”
The addition brings GE's employee count to about 2,000 in Chicagoland and 3,000 across the state of Illinois.
