Obama Picks G.E. Chief for Board as Focus Turns to Jobs
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG and ANAHAD O’CONNOR
Published: January 21, 2011
Charles Dharapak/Associated Press
General Electric’s Jeffrey Immelt with President Obama at a roundtable discussion with business leaders in Mumbai, India in November.
Joshua Roberts/Bloomberg News
Paul Volcker stepped down as the chairman of President Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board.
Mr. Immelt will chair a new Council on Jobs and Competitiveness that Mr. Obama intends to create by executive order. In a statement issued shortly after midnight, Mr. Obama said he wants the council to “focus its work on finding new ways to encourage the private sector to hire and invest in American competitiveness.”
The council will be a reconfigured version of the board Mr. Volcker led, the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board. That body, created by Mr. Obama when he took office in the thick of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, is set to expire on Feb. 6.
The changes signal what the White House describes as “a new phase of our recovery,” a shift from crisis to job creation. They come as Mr. Obama has been working hard to repair his frayed relations with the business community. Mr. Immelt, who was a member of the original board, has often been by the president’s side in recent months, as Mr. Obama has sought to spotlight his efforts on behalf of American companies overseas.
He was with Mr. Obama when the president traveled to India in November. During a stop in Mumbai, the White House announced a string of business deals between India and American companies, including a $750 million order from India’s Reliance Power Ltd. for steam turbines manufactured by General Electric.
And Mr. Immelt was with the president again this week during the visit of President Hu Jintao of China, taking part in a meeting Mr. Obama convened with business leaders and Mr. Hu and attending the state dinner in Mr. Hu’s honor on Wednesday.
“Jeff Immelt’s experience at G.E. and his understanding of the vital role the private sector plays in creating jobs and making America competitive makes him up to the challenge of leading this new council,” Mr. Obama said.
Schenectady, where the president will make the formal announcement of his appointment, is the birthplace of General Electric and remains home to G.E.’s largest energy division. The steam turbines purchased by Reliance Power will be built there. The company reported early on Friday that it had earned $4.5 billion in the fourth quarter of 2010 and $11.6 billion for the full year, exceeding Wall Street analysts’ expectations.
In reconstituting his economic advisory panel, Mr. Obama appears to have changed its mission from stabilizing the economy to increasing employment, something signaled by the board’s new name, the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.
Mr. Immelt mentioned his impending appointment in an opinion article published in The Washington Post on Friday. “The president and I are committed to a candid and full dialogue among business, labor and government to help ensure that the United States has the most competitive and innovative economy in the world,” he said in the article. “My hope is that the council will be a sounding board for ideas and a catalyst for action on jobs and competitiveness. It will include small and large businesses, labor, economists and government.”
It was well known in Washington that Mr. Volcker, 83, had sometimes been frustrated in his role as an outside adviser to the president. In the statement, Mr. Obama thanked Mr. Volcker for his service and pledged to continue to call on the former Fed chairman for advice, saying, “He will always be a member of my team.”
During Mr. Volcker’s time as head of the previous panel, the former Fed chairman met periodically with Mr. Obama and had something of a lukewarm relationship with the administration, which mostly obtained its economic guidance from Timothy F. Geithner, the Treasury secretary, and Lawrence H. Summers, director of the National Economic Council. Mr. Volcker, however, became well known for crafting a measure that restricts the ability of banks whose deposits are federally insured from trading for their own benefit. Mr. Obama proposed the “Volcker rule” in January 2010 as part of a broader financial regulatory reform effort, though the measure has been fiercely opposed by some banks and Wall Street firms.
Mr. Obama’s statement called Mr. Volcker “one of the wisest economic minds” in the country, and someone who has “fought for policies that help American families and strengthen our economy.”
Mr. Immelt’s appointment comes as Mr. Obama has increasingly turned to people with close ties to the business sector for counsel in the wake of the setbacks of the midterm elections, something highlighted by the appointment of William M. Daley, the former Commerce secretary and senior executive at JPMorgan Chase, as the president’s chief of staff.
The council will be a reconfigured version of the board Mr. Volcker led, the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board. That body, created by Mr. Obama when he took office in the thick of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, is set to expire on Feb. 6.
The changes signal what the White House describes as “a new phase of our recovery,” a shift from crisis to job creation. They come as Mr. Obama has been working hard to repair his frayed relations with the business community. Mr. Immelt, who was a member of the original board, has often been by the president’s side in recent months, as Mr. Obama has sought to spotlight his efforts on behalf of American companies overseas.
He was with Mr. Obama when the president traveled to India in November. During a stop in Mumbai, the White House announced a string of business deals between India and American companies, including a $750 million order from India’s Reliance Power Ltd. for steam turbines manufactured by General Electric.
And Mr. Immelt was with the president again this week during the visit of President Hu Jintao of China, taking part in a meeting Mr. Obama convened with business leaders and Mr. Hu and attending the state dinner in Mr. Hu’s honor on Wednesday.
“Jeff Immelt’s experience at G.E. and his understanding of the vital role the private sector plays in creating jobs and making America competitive makes him up to the challenge of leading this new council,” Mr. Obama said.
Schenectady, where the president will make the formal announcement of his appointment, is the birthplace of General Electric and remains home to G.E.’s largest energy division. The steam turbines purchased by Reliance Power will be built there. The company reported early on Friday that it had earned $4.5 billion in the fourth quarter of 2010 and $11.6 billion for the full year, exceeding Wall Street analysts’ expectations.
In reconstituting his economic advisory panel, Mr. Obama appears to have changed its mission from stabilizing the economy to increasing employment, something signaled by the board’s new name, the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.
Mr. Immelt mentioned his impending appointment in an opinion article published in The Washington Post on Friday. “The president and I are committed to a candid and full dialogue among business, labor and government to help ensure that the United States has the most competitive and innovative economy in the world,” he said in the article. “My hope is that the council will be a sounding board for ideas and a catalyst for action on jobs and competitiveness. It will include small and large businesses, labor, economists and government.”
It was well known in Washington that Mr. Volcker, 83, had sometimes been frustrated in his role as an outside adviser to the president. In the statement, Mr. Obama thanked Mr. Volcker for his service and pledged to continue to call on the former Fed chairman for advice, saying, “He will always be a member of my team.”
During Mr. Volcker’s time as head of the previous panel, the former Fed chairman met periodically with Mr. Obama and had something of a lukewarm relationship with the administration, which mostly obtained its economic guidance from Timothy F. Geithner, the Treasury secretary, and Lawrence H. Summers, director of the National Economic Council. Mr. Volcker, however, became well known for crafting a measure that restricts the ability of banks whose deposits are federally insured from trading for their own benefit. Mr. Obama proposed the “Volcker rule” in January 2010 as part of a broader financial regulatory reform effort, though the measure has been fiercely opposed by some banks and Wall Street firms.
Mr. Obama’s statement called Mr. Volcker “one of the wisest economic minds” in the country, and someone who has “fought for policies that help American families and strengthen our economy.”
Mr. Immelt’s appointment comes as Mr. Obama has increasingly turned to people with close ties to the business sector for counsel in the wake of the setbacks of the midterm elections, something highlighted by the appointment of William M. Daley, the former Commerce secretary and senior executive at JPMorgan Chase, as the president’s chief of staff.
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