Management shuffles at General Electric

John Rice takes over infrastructure unit, Lloyd Trotter to head industrial unit.
BOSTON (Reuters) -- Blue chip conglomerate General Electric Co. on Wednesday said John Rice would take over its largest business unit, infrastructure, with Lloyd Trotter succeeding him at the top of the industrial unit.
The moves follow the exit of David Calhoun, former head of the infrastructure business, who was named chairman of the executive board and chief executive officer of VNU Group BV, a Dutch market research firm with € 3.5 billion ($4.5 billion) in 2005 revenues.
A spokesman for the Fairfield, Conn.-based company, which is the world's second-largest by market value, said the moves would not signal major changes at either unit. Calhoun has spent 28 years at GE (Charts), with Trotter serving 36 years.
Peter Bates, an equity analyst at mutual fund company T. Rowe Price, of Baltimore, Md., said Calhoun's departure would be a loss for GE, but one it would weather.
"I don't want to downplay the disappointment with the departure, but I don't think that it changes the GE thesis," Bates said. "Calhoun must have wanted to do something different. I don't think he had a bad relationship with Jeff (Immelt, GE's chairman and CEO)."
In taking his new post, Trotter becomes a vice chairman of GE, a rank Rice already held. He last served as executive vice president of operations, reporting to Immelt.
The infrastructure unit, which makes products including jet engines and power-generating equipment, is GE's largest business, accounting for 28 percent of the company's $149.7 billion in revenues last year.
The industrial unit, with businesses ranging from high-tech automation systems to kitchen appliances and light bulbs, is GE's second largest, representing 21.8 percent of revenue.
GE's top officials have a history of going to head other major companies. Some former GE executives now running other blue-chip companies include David Cote, chairman and CEO of Honeywell International Inc., and James McNerney, chairman, president and CEO of Boeing Co.
Peter Smith, an equity analyst at Morningstar in Chicago, said GE would take the changes in stride.
"These sorts of management shuffles have happened many times before," Smith said. "They take that into account and develop people at the levels just below the division heads, knowing that they will be called upon to step up from time to time."
At VNU, Calhoun succeeds interim CEO Rob Ruijter, who will remain chief financial officer.
VNU earlier this year was bought by a consortium of six private equity firms in a € 7.6 billion ($9.7 billion) deal. The company has 41,000 employees.
GE shares were down on the New York Stock Exchange in late morning trading. The company's shares have lagged broader market indicators so far this year, sliding 3.8 percent at a time when the blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average is up about 5.7 percent, amid concerns that a slowing U.S. economy could take a toll on GE's prospects.