GE Capital Names Mark Begor President & CEO of Real Estate and Margaret Keane President & CEO of U.S. Consumer Retail Finance
Begor to Take Over Role from 32-year GE Veteran Ron Pressman
Norwalk, Conn., March 2, 2011 -- GE Capital announced today that Mark Begor has been named president and CEO of GE Capital Real Estate, a diversified commercial real estate finance and investment firm. Margaret Keane has been promoted and will replace Begor as president and CEO for the U.S. Consumer Retail Finance business, consisting of the Retail Consumer Finance (RCF) and Sales Finance businesses.
Begor succeeds Ron Pressman, who has led GE Capital Real Estate since 2007 and played a critical role navigating the business through the recent financial crisis. After a distinguished 32-year GE career with senior roles in both industrial and financial businesses, Pressman will be leaving next month to pursue interests outside the company.
Begor, a 31-year GE veteran, most recently served as president and CEO for GE Capital’s U.S. Consumer Retail Finance business and led Restructuring Operations, delivering a record 2010 performance in a challenging environment. In his new role, Begor will oversee Real Estate and continue to have responsibility for the Restructuring Operations businesses.
Margaret Keane, a 15-year GE veteran, has headed RCF since 2004, leading the business through a very difficult cycle to achieve a record performance in 2010. Keane has extensive financial services industry experience and served as GE Capital’s Quality Leader in a previous role. Reporting to Keane, Glenn Marino will continue leading the Sales Finance business.
“Real Estate and U.S. Consumer Retail Finance are strong and important parts of our portfolio,” GE Vice Chairman and GE Capital Chairman and CEO Mike Neal said. “Mark's extensive GE leadership experience; deep financial, operational, and business development skills; and, in particular his financial services experience of managing through cycles, will serve him well leading the Real Estate team. Margaret’s demonstrated track record of delivering outstanding results throughout her GE career, and particularly during her time at RCF, will help to further strengthen our U.S. Consumer Retail Finance business.
“I want to thank Ron for his many years of service to GE and GE Capital. He helped us manage through one of the toughest cycles in our history, and he built a great team that will help us succeed going forward,” Neal said.
All changes are effective April 1, 2011.
About GE Capital:
As part of GE (NYSE: GE), GE Capital is one of the world’s largest providers of credit. For over one million businesses, large and small, GE Capital provides financing to purchase, lease and distribute equipment, as well as capital for real estate and corporate acquisitions, refinancings and restructurings. For our 100+ million consumer customers, GE Capital offers credit cards, retail sales finance programs, home, car and personal loans and credit insurance. For more information, visit gecapital.com or follow company news via Twitter (@GECapital).