Larry Culp

Larry Culp is the Chairman and CEO of GE Aerospace, the aviation division that emerged as the core successor to General Electric after the historic breakup of the 130-year-old conglomerate. Born in 1963, Culp made his name as CEO of Danaher Corporation, where he spent 14 years transforming the industrial conglomerate through the Danaher Business System of continuous improvement, growing its market capitalization from $20 billion to over $100 billion. He was recruited to GE in October 2018 as the first outsider CEO in the company's history. Culp inherited a GE in crisis — the once-great conglomerate had destroyed over $200 billion in shareholder value under his predecessors, was drowning in debt from the GE Capital financial services unit, and had been removed from the Dow Jones Industrial Average for the first time since 1907. His first years were spent stabilizing the balance sheet, selling non-core assets, and reducing debt by over $100 billion. His signature achievement was the decision to break up GE entirely. In November 2021, Culp announced that GE would split into three independent public companies: GE HealthCare (spun off January 2023), GE Vernova covering energy and power (spun off April 2024), and GE Aerospace, the remaining entity he leads. This breakup ended one of the most famous corporate structures in American capitalism, acknowledging that the conglomerate model had become a value-destroying liability. As CEO of standalone GE Aerospace, Culp leads the world's dominant jet engine manufacturer — the LEAP engine (with Safran) and GE9X power the majority of new commercial aircraft globally. With a $150+ billion services backlog and decades of engine maintenance revenue ahead, GE Aerospace is one of the highest-quality industrial franchises in the world. Under Culp, the stock has risen roughly tenfold from its 2018 crisis lows.