GE announces additions to GE Vernova leadership team

Rachel Gonzalez will join GE Vernova as General Counsel, effective April 1. Rachel most recently served as General Counsel of Starbucks Coffee Corporation, where she handled legal and regulatory affairs, global security and data privacy, and ethics and compliance. She also played an active role in shaping and executing Starbucks growth-at-scale strategy to support revenue and earnings growth, while advancing the profit-people-planet (3Ps) agenda of the company. Prior to joining Starbucks in 2018, Rachel led a global team responsible for human resources (HR), corporate communications, legal strategy, regulatory affairs, corporate compliance, and government affairs at Sabre Corporation. She previously served as Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary with Dean Foods in Dallas, Texas, and earlier in her career, Rachel was a partner with the law firm of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius. Rachel serves on the boards of Electronic Arts as well as Sabre Corporation. She also serves on the advisory board of PODER25, a sub-organization of the Hispanic National Bar Association. Rachel holds a law degree and bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley.

Amber Kagan will serve as the Chief Compliance Officer (CCO) and head of Labor and Employment (L&E) for GE Vernova post spin. Amber joined GE in 2010 and currently serves as the CCO and Global Head of L&E for GE. As GE’s CCO, Amber is responsible for developing and implementing a corporate governance model that ensures appropriate processes and procedures are in place to maintain and strengthen GE’s integrity culture. Amber is also responsible for directing the company’s L&E function, ensuring the company is in compliance with all global employment laws and obligations and overseeing employment litigation. Prior to GE, Amber spent 21 years with Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, where she led the New York Labor and Employment Practice Group. Amber received her law degree from the University of Pennsylvania and bachelor’s degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Steven Baert will join GE Vernova as Chief People Officer (CPO), effective April 1. Steven currently serves as managing partner and founder of Propuli llc, a firm based in Switzerland, specializing in human capital advisory services for clients including Carlyle Private Equity. Initially trained as a lawyer, Steven has over 20 years of leadership experience in HR and talent development. He spent more than 15 years at Novartis in the US, Emerging Markets and Europe. From 2014 until 2021, he served as Chief People Officer and member of the Executive Committee of Novartis AG. In this capacity he led a 2500 person HR team, oversaw all people and governance related matters around multiple mergers, acquisitions and the Alcon spin, introduced a data driven approach to measure people impact on business performance, and led efforts to increase diversity and build an equitable and inclusive culture. Previously, Steven worked as HR Director in the UK, Ireland, and Belgium for Bristol-Myers Squibb. Steven received his bachelor of law from Katholieke Universiteit Brussels, his masters in law from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, and his masters of business administration from Vlerick Business School in Belgium.

Rob Duffy will serve as Vice President of Business Development, effective immediately. Rob currently serves as Vice President of Business Development in GE’s Corporate Business Development group, which is responsible for implementation of GE’s corporate acquisition and divestiture strategy across its businesses. He started his GE career in 2003 and previously served as Vice President of Business Development at GE Power, GE’s largest industrial unit with over $29 billion of revenues. Prior to GE, Duffy spent 12 years at Credit Suisse First Boston as a managing director in its mergers and acquisition group both in New York and London. He has worked on a number of GE’s major transactions including the sale of 49% of NBC Universal to Comcast and the sale of GE Plastics to Sabic. Rob received his law degree from Georgetown University, master’s degree in international economics from the University of Wales and bachelor’s degree in economics from Harvard College.

Angelica Tritzo will serve as Vice President of Digital Technologies, effective immediately. Angelica has spent her career leading and developing organizations to achieve the next level of productivity, customer excellence and innovation. She currently serves as GE Vernova’s Separation Management Office (SMO) Leader for Digital Technologies as well as Chief Information Officer (CIO) for GE Renewable Energy. In her CIO role, she’s delivered business results driving digital transformation outcomes for a $15 billion global industrial business serving the renewable energy industry. She began her career at GE with GE Oil & Gas as Data Warehouse IT Leader in 1996 and has held multiple leadership roles across the business, including in GE Oil & Gas’s Global Services and Subsea Systems divisions as well as in its Turbomachinery & Processing business. Angelica holds a degree in mathematics from the University of Florence in Italy.

Nomi Ahmad has been appointed CEO of GE Energy Financial Services (EFS), effective March 1 and succeeding Susan Flanagan, who retired from GE. Nomi brings 30 years of global energy infrastructure and asset management experience to GE. He most recently served as Operating Partner/CEO of an energy storage platform at Sandbrook Capital. Prior to this, he was CFO at Highview Power, a leading long-duration energy storage company and CEO of Sembcorp Energy UK Ltd, which managed over 1 GW of energy generation assets in the UK. From Singapore, Nomi led the growth of the utilities business at Sembcorp, focused on utilities, urban development, and the marine sectors. Nomi has also worked at Lanco Infratech, Wärtsilä Corporation, El Paso Energy, Smith Cogeneration, and Kidder Peabody over his career. Nomi received a bachelor’s degree from Brown University.

“I’m thrilled to welcome this experienced and accomplished set of leaders to the team,” said Scott Strazik, CEO of GE Vernova. “This is a group of individuals that will bring global perspectives and diverse insights to our business. I’m confident that this team will successfully lead GE Vernova forward as we continue to both electrify and decarbonize the world and as we work towards our planned spin.”

GE Vernova, the company’s portfolio of energy businesses, is planned for a tax-free investment grade spin-off from GE sometime in early 2024. The portfolio includes Renewable Energy, Power, Digital and Energy Financial Services.