Swedish Executive Brings Global Experience, Outsider's Perspective to GE Finance Role
November 25 2019 - 2:05PM
Dow Jones News
By Nina Trentmann and Costas Paris
Swedish finance executive Carolina Dybeck Happe, who on Monday
was named as General Electric Co.'s incoming finance chief, is
relatively unknown to U.S. investors.
Analysts say, however, that she has the background GE Chief
Executive Larry Culp was looking for as he seeks to remake the
industrial conglomerate.
Ms. Dybeck Happe, the current CFO of Danish shipping giant A.P.
Moller Maersk A/S, has managed large, global finance teams in a
conglomerate structure. She has been a cost manager who has helped
guide corporate transformation and has developed a reputation as a
nimble communicator with investors.
She's also an outsider, much like Mr. Culp, who took over the
top role at GE in the fall of 2018. That could mean new viewpoints
for the Boston-based company when Ms. Dybeck Happe joins GE next
year.
"What GE investors are looking for is someone who ticks all the
boxes, which I think she does," said Nigel Coe, a managing director
at research firm Wolfe Research LLC.
Perhaps her strongest foundation block was developed at Assa
Abloy AB, a Stockholm-based manufacturer of locks and provider of
entrance systems, where Ms. Dybeck Happe's acumen was honed running
the finances of a large international company.
Assa Abloy's strong focus on expanding into new markets -- and
the fact that the U.S. is one of its most important geographies --
provide her with the international insight needed to manage GE's
global finance operation, Mr. Coe said.
During her time as Assa Abloy's regional CFO in London and
Berlin -- and more than six years as the group CFO -- Ms. Dybeck
Happe took on the company's strong focus on cost, another skill
that should be useful in her new role at GE, which has been trying
to cut costs under Mr. Culp. She also gained operational experience
and learned how to manage growth, according to analysts.
Her departure leaves a new gap at Maersk, which has seen two of
its most senior leaders depart in less than two weeks, following
the resignation of Chief Operating Officer Søren Toft this month to
become chief executive of Mediterranean Shipping Co.
At Copenhagen-based Maersk, which she joined in January, she was
involved with managing the company's transformation toward a
streamlined, more focused company, which involved shedding assets
and simplifying its structures, said Casper Blom, an analyst at
investment bank ABG Sundal Collier.
Ms. Dybeck Happe helped emphasize the company's focus on capital
discipline and lowered its targets for capital expenditures, which
marked an important shift in how Maersk communicated with its
investors, said Johan Eliason, a senior analyst at financial
services company Kepler Cheuvreux SA.
She also worked to cut spending for more ships at Maersk as the
company shifted its investment focus toward warehousing space and
customs clearing houses.
"She's got an offer she couldn't resist both in terms of salary
and other benefits," a person with knowledge of the matter said.
"She is a fiercely independent and disciplined executive who speaks
her mind and is going to be missed at Maersk."
The person described the departure of two senior executives
within a short period as a shock and an unfortunate
coincidence.
GE and Maersk had differing accounts of when Ms. Dybeck Happe
would move to the U.S. company. GE said she would join in early
2020. Maersk in its statement announcing her departure said she
could leave as late as November 2020. A person familiar with the
matter said she is bound by contract for that time but that she
would be released from the contract when Maersk names a replacement
as CFO.
Maersk and GE declined to make Ms. Dybeck Happe available for an
interview. Ms. Dybeck Happe also didn't return messages seeking
comment.
Ms. Dybeck Happe serves on the board of two European companies
in sectors relevant to GE: German utility E. ON SE and French
energy management and automation company Schneider Electric SE.
And as an outsider to GE, Ms. Dybeck Happe might be more
inclined to enforce significant changes than Jamie Miller, who had
served as GE's chief information officer, controller and chief
accounting officer before she climbed to the CFO role. Ms. Miller
will leave GE after the transition.
Ms. Dybeck Happe also is the second female leading GE's
finances, underscoring Mr. Culp's push for a diverse leadership
team that prioritizes sustainable management practices, said
Nicholas Heymann, co-head of the global industrial infrastructure
division at William Blair & Co.
Having spent the majority of her career in Europe -- Ms. Dybeck
Happe in the 1990s also worked short stints in Moscow and in Santa
Barbara, Calif. -- she could use that experience to challenge
existing views and practices in the company, analysts said.
"Whenever you move firms, you are an outsider and have to
establish yourself," said Mr. Coe. "There is widespread recognition
that change is needed at GE."
Write to Nina Trentmann at Nina.Trentmann@wsj.com and Costas
Paris at costas.paris@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 25, 2019 14:50 ET (19:50 GMT)
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