General Electric’s long-time CEO and Chairman has stepped down as the company Chief Executive Officer. The company announced on Monday that John Flannery, the current President and CEO of GE Healthcare has been named the CEO of the company, effective August 1, 2017, and will be Chairman and CEO effective January 1, 2018. 

Jeff will remain Chairman of the board through his retirement from the company on December 31, 2017.

"John is the right person to lead GE today," Immelt said in a statement. "He will be trusted by investors, our customers and the GE team."

Additionally, Chief Financial Officer Jeff Bornstein will become Vice Chairman of the company, and Kieran Murphy has been appointed CEO of GE Healthcare, succeeding Flannery. Murphy is currently the President of GE Healthcare's life sciences division.

GE said these moves are part of its succession plan, which has been in place by the company's board since 2011.

Jeff had succeeded legendary CEO Jack Welch, who had led the company for 20 years and vastly increased its size and scope. Immelt took over as CEO on Sept. 7, 2001, four days before 9/11 terrorist attacks. He led the company not only through the period following the attacks but also the 2008 crisis in financial markets.

John Flannery began his career at GE Capital in 1987. He has led GE's equity business in Latin America and the overall GE Capital business for Argentina and Chile. 

In 2002, John became the President & CEO of GE Equity and was asked to lead the business through a difficult cycle. In 2005, he moved to Asia where he was responsible for the Asia Pacific region for GE Capital and while there he grew earnings in Japan by 100 percent, in Korea by 30 percent and in Australia by 25 percent. In 2009, he moved to India to lead the country for GE. During his time in India, John upgraded the leadership team, built the culture and focused on the industrial side of the business, where he increased industrial sales by 50 percent in 2011. In 2013, he was tapped to lead business development at GE Corporate where he focused on capital allocation for the company and led the acquisition of Alstom, the largest industrial acquisition in the company’s history. He also worked on shrinking GE Capital, the Synchrony Financial IPO, and the disposition of GE Appliances.

"Today's announcement is the greatest honor of my career," Flannery said in a statement. "I am privileged to have spent the last 16 years at the company working for Jeff, one of the greatest business leaders of our time."