Archive

Posts Tagged ‘Jeff Immelt’

GE Celebrates the Reagan Era

February 12th, 2011

It was an 80s flashback at the Ronald Reagan Building, fully equipped with glow bracelets, Atari games, giant dangling Rubik’s cubes, and breakdancers busting moves to a cover band.  Not a bad way for Fred Ryan, President and CEO of Politico and Chairman of the Board of Trustees for the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and GE Chairman and CEO, Jeff Immelt, to get a party started.  Add in Tom Brokaw and Andrea Mitchell and you have a Washington style party to celebrate the Centennial birthday of the 40th President of the United States, Ronald Reagan.

Jeff Immelt

Thanks to the new GE ads, we remember Reagan as a Hollywood heartthrob and popular host of General Electric Theater, which aired on CBS radio and television. GE honored their beloved star with a party and conversation on Wednesday. Jeff Immelt reminisced about starting with the company back in 1982 while Reagan was in office (Immelt’s father worked at GE, too).

NBC’s Tom Brokaw moderated the panel discussion and aside from interviewing the president several times, shared a birthday with him: February 6. Panelists included Politico’s Mike Allen, CNN Sam Feist, NBC’s Andrea Mitchell, Reagan White House Staffer Ed Meese, and former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer.

Reagan was remembered as “The Great Communicator “ and Fleischer did not doubt the president could still wear the title in today’s media environment. “If Ronald Reagan had a Twitter account he would know what to say in 140 characters or less.”

Reagan only needed four words to go down in history. Ed Meese recalled how anotherspeechwriter, Peter Robertson, told the president that “tear down this wall” was too strong and the State Department would not be happy with the phrase. Reagan insisted, telling Mr. Gorbachev and the rest of the world to knock down the Berlin Wall on June 12, 1987, essentially the beginning of the end of the Cold War.

The Reagan Library has more information on centennial celebrations taking placethroughout the country.

Check out photos from the party and panel discussion below:

Share

WHC Insider Correspondents , , , , , , ,

No Free Lunch

December 2nd, 2009
MANMOHAN SINGH

Business CEO’s are part of an Obama “corporate kitchen cabinet,” according to Politico’s Eamon Javers. The members lean heavily toward the tech and financial sectors: Eric Schmidt of Google, Jeff Immelt of GE, Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase, and Robert Wolf of UBS.

Wolf has even “scored an invitation to golf with Obama” — but there’s no free lunch for the corporate chieftains. “Each executive is asked for a credit card number and subsequently billed for [their] meal.”

CLICK here for the complete story.

Share

gtruong News Media , , , , ,

Did He or Didn’t He?

August 7th, 2009
The Hollywood Radio And Television Society Newsmakers Luncheon

Billy O'Reilly

2008 Summer TCA Tour - Day 14

Keith Olbermann

The so-called cease-fire between Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly and

MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann has ended … it may have been the shortest and least observed cease-fire in history.

According to a New York Times article, parent CEO’s Roger Ailes and Jeff Immelt got the pair to tone down their attacks. At least they had until the Times pointed it out, which has set off a new round of hostilities. Olbermann denied any deal to play nice and launched a new segment — “The Worst Persons in the World” — which was topped by O’Reilly and Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch.

O’Reilly, who refuses to mention Olbermann by name on his show, put Jeff Immelt and GE’s Securities and Exchange Commission fine back in his sights.

So, was there a cease-fire? Will there be another brokered peace? Howard Kurtz’s article in the Washington Post today cites Ailes as saying he could control his nutcases, but Immelt couldn’t control his.

Share

gtruong News Media , , , , ,