OREANDA-NEWS. GE (GE:NYSE) today announces the appointment of Mark Hutchinson as President & CEO of GE’s European region. He succeeds Stephan Reimelt, who has been appointed President & CEO, GE Power Conversion effective 19th October. Mark will report to John Rice, GE’s Vice Chairman and President & CEO of GE’s Global Growth Organization. In addition, Mark will retain his current position of Integration Leader for the Alstom transaction, GE’s largest-ever industrial acquisition. In this capacity, he will continue to report to GE CEO & Chairman Jeff Immelt.

Prior to his current role, Mark was President & CEO, GE Greater China, responsible for GE’s growth strategy and leading a team of 18,000 people across manufacturing, sourcing, sales and other functions. During his tenure in China, Mark developed and executed a shared growth strategy for all the GE businesses helping to drive double-digit growth year on year under his leadership. He is an officer and Vice President of GE and a member of the company’s Corporate Executive Council. A native of the U.K., he previously was head of Barclay’s Merchant Bank Asian project advisory team, based in Hong Kong.

Commenting, John Rice said: “This is an exciting time for GE and for GE in Europe as we transform the company into a leading digital industrial company. Mark is playing a key role in the GE Alstom transaction and we are pleased that he will continue to lead the integration process for GE.

We are fortunate to have someone of Mark’s calibre take the leadership of GE in Europe. He has made a career of building business teams and orchestrating development projects around the world.  Mark combines a broad background as a global business leader with deep local knowledge earned on the ground in key markets where he has served.”

GE currently employs over 94,000 employees in Europe across 900 locations generating revenues in excess of $25 billion and has exports of over $15 billion to growth markets across the world. GE anticipates that it will close the GE Alstom transaction in Q4 of 2015.