GE’s Gary Wendt Resigns

NEW YORK — The man once considered the heir apparent to General Electric Co.’s legendary Chairman John F. Welch resigned abruptly Tuesday, increasing the uncertainty over who will take over the leadership of one of America’s most successful companies.

With just two years left until Welch retires, GE is giving no indication of who might replace its star chairman. Welch will leave behind a legacy as the man who transformed a company best known for making lightbulbs and appliances into a powerful manufacturing empire that includes NBC, TV’s most profitable broadcaster.

What did become clear Tuesday was that Gary Wendt, head of GE’s financial services division, GE Capital, won’t succeed Welch.

Wendt, 56, is the man who made GE Capital the company’s largest and most profitable subsidiary. He quit without an explanation.

Wendt was once considered a top candidate for Welch’s job, but he and Welch have been known to have a rocky personal relationship in recent years. Wendt also brought GE bad publicity with a messy divorce a few years ago in which his wife claimed half their assets to compensate for her role as a corporate wife.

In an interview Tuesday with CNBC, the business TV network owned by GE, Welch praised Wendt’s work in building the success of GE Capital, but did not describe the circumstances of his resignation.

“I’m going to be retiring in a couple of years, and this is all about transition and putting the management team in place for the next century,” Welch said.

The man named to replace Wendt as head of GE Capital is Dennis Dammerman, chief financial officer at the parent company. Dammerman also will take on the additional role of vice chairman of GE’s board. Dammerman will work closely with Welch as one of the four men in the corporate executive office, but it’s unclear if he could be a successor.

Company spokesman Bruce Bunch would not say which executives were on the short list to replace Welch, though he did say that the person would be chosen from within the company. The board has been considering possible successors since 1995, when Welch gave notice that he would retire in 2000.

The management shake-up did not seem to ruffle many feathers on Wall Street, where GE’s stock slipped just 38 cents to close at $90.44 on the New York Stock Exchange.

There is no question, however, that Welch will be an extraordinarily tough act to follow. In his 17 years as chairman of GE, he has reinvented a venerable American company whose founders included Thomas Edison. Under his leadership, profit has risen from $1.6 billion to $8.2 billion. GE’s market value of nearly $300 billion puts it among the most highly valued companies in the world, including Microsoft Corp.