GE President Jay Ireland’s set for Retirement after 38 Years of Service

By Virginia Nyambura

GE Healthcare, on 30th July, announced that its President and CEO, GE Africa, Jay Ireland was set for retirement.

Jay Ireland’s retirement is set to be effective on 30th September and will mark 38 years of service to the healthcare company.

“It has been a great honor to build GE Africa. The past 7 years in Sub-Saharan Africa have been the most rewarding of my 38 years in GE,” said Jay Ireland adding that opportunities across many sectors, the optimism, the energy and entrepreneurial nature of the people had all contributed him having a wonderful experience.

“I am extremely proud of the value we have created together with our customers and partners. I want to thank all 2600 employees in the region for their support and commitment to making GE a valued partner for the development of infrastructure in Africa,” said the outgoing CEO.

Farid Fezoua has been named as the incoming President and CEO, GE Healthcare Africa. Farid’s appointment is effective 1st October.

 During his course at GE Africa, Ireland, Ireland held several leadership positions. He headed GE Asset Management (GEAM), a global investment firm with about US$120 billion in assets under management at the time.

He was President of NBC Universal Television Stations and Network Operations where he had overall executive responsibility for NBC Universal’s 10 television stations, the Telemundo network together with its 16 Spanish language television stations.

Before joining NBC in 1999, he had been the CFO of GE Plastics. Ireland started his career in 1980 with General Electric in its Financial Management Program after 3 years the US Army.

 Ireland plays a key external role advocating for investment in Africa. He is the Chair of the US President’s Advisory Council on Doing Business in Africa. He is also Co-Chair of the US Africa Business Centre – launched in 2015 to lead the U.S. business community’s engagement with Africa’s regional economic communities, the private sector, and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Ireland was a member of the African Development Bank’s special panel on accelerating the implementation of its ten-year strategy. 

“Jay has been an inspiring leader, colleague and role model over the course of a remarkable 38 years with the Company” said Alex Dimitrief, President and CEO GE Global adding that during Jay’s tenure, GE had tripled its annual revenues in Sub-Saharan Africa and had established a strong bench of African executives leading the company’s businesses in the continent.

Dimitrief also added that Farid’s excellent track record of leading GE Healthcare across Africa made him the right choice to lead the next phase of GE’s strategy and growth in the region.

Farid Fezoua, with a career spanning almost 28 years, has been leading GE Healthcare’s business growth in Africa since 2012. He has led the development of major large-scale modernization programs with public and private sector project development/partnerships across Africa giving him the experience he requires to be at the helm of the company.

Farid joined GE in 2003 to lead customer financing efforts for GE Healthcare’s Middle East, Africa and Turkey Region.

He was appointed Regional Executive for GE Capital Markets Corporate, in 2005 leading customer and project finance for all GE businesses in the Middle East and Africa.

Farid has broad experience in the financing of trade and investment flows across the Middle East, Africa, and Europe.

He has a strong track record of infrastructure project development & financing in the field of power, transportation and health care as well as business operations and management.