By Ted Mann and Joshua Jamerson 

Keith Sherin, who helped steer General Electric Co. through the depths of the financial crisis and then shrank the company's massive lending business, is retiring after 35 years at the company.

GE said the 57-year-old finance executive will step aside as chief executive of GE Capital on Thursday and retire from the conglomerate on Dec. 31. He will be succeeded by one of his lieutenants.

In an email to employees Tuesday, GE Chief Executive Jeff Immelt praised Mr. Sherin as a humble, steadying hand during a period of profound turmoil at the company.

"He could juggle 10 balls at once," Mr. Immelt wrote. "I could trust him with any task, large or small... He was equally comfortable in the boardroom as he was on the factory floor."

Mr. Sherin worked his way up the ranks and served 15 years as the company's chief financial officer, beginning under former CEO Jack Welch. Since 2013, he has been head of GE Capital, the once-massive lending unit that had been a huge driver of profitability under Mr. Welch, but transformed into a millstone for Mr. Immelt during the financial crisis.

The dismantling of most of GE Capital, which began in earnest in the spring of 2015, has been Mr. Sherin's job, and one in which he has won plaudits from fellow GE executives, as well as Wall Street analysts. GE has beaten its initial timeline for selling off roughly $200 billion worth of finance assets by roughly a year.

GE Capital received clearance from the Federal Reserve to shed its designation as a systemically important financial institution in June, exiting the supervision by teams of Fed banking regulators that had been a significant headache for the company throughout Mr. Sherin's tenure.

In an email to GE Capital staffers Tuesday, Mr. Sherin wrote, "We helped change the face of the General Electric Company."

People who worked with Messrs. Immelt and Sherin described a classic partnership -- the CEO optimistic and energetic in pursuit of new markets or acquisition targets, his CFO acting as a conservative counterweight, always pushing to consider the risks.

"There wasn't one session with the board or with investors where I didn't want Keith's voice to be heard loud and clear even if sometimes I didn't necessarily agree with it," Mr. Immelt said in an interview. The duo have shifted GE to a more global footing and sold off the appliance, plastics and insurance units.

Mr. Immelt said Mr. Sherin had been a valued counsel, dating back to the 1990s. The two men were running GE's health-care business, when they did their first deal together, traveling to tour a small ultrasound business in a humble building in Horten, Norway.

"I remember driving over with him in Norway, looking at this little shed in the ground, and I said 'Oh, my god.'" Mr. Immelt said. They made the deal anyway, shelling out $228 million in 1998. The technology made by that company, Diasonics Vingmed, now makes up the core of GE's current ultrasound business, Mr. Immelt said.

As CFO and later head of GE Capital, Mr. Sherin was known for his die-hard support for the University of Notre Dame, his alma mater, and his affinity for riding his motorcycle on weekends in Connecticut, where the company was then based.

Mr. Sherin also bolstered the spirits of colleagues with his defense of GE in a lengthy CNBC interview on March 5, 2009, at a time when GE shares closed below $7 amid doubts about the stability of GE Capital. "That was just a very big moment for the company," Mr. Immelt said. GE shares closed Tuesday at $31.37.

Richard Laxer, the head of GE Capital's international operations, will succeed Mr. Sherin as CEO of the remaining GE Capital business. Mr. Laxer, 55, started out in GE's financial management program in 1984 and has led GE Capital's international operations since 2009.

Write to Ted Mann at ted.mann@wsj.com and Joshua Jamerson at joshua.jamerson@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 30, 2016 17:18 ET (21:18 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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