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The 2015 Pension 40: Jeffrey Immelt
No. 14 Jeffrey Immelt, Chairman and Chief Executive / General Electric Co.
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.
 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 |