How GE CEO Larry Culp pulled off the turnaround of the century - Fortune

What the report says

Fortune reports that Larry Culp’s tenure at General Electric has turned a company once viewed as at risk of collapse into three separately traded businesses with a combined market value of about $689 billion. Culp became GE’s CEO in 2018, when the company’s market capitalization was roughly $96 billion after a steep decline from its 2000 peak. The article, by Shawn Tully and published July 23, 2026, frames the result as one of the most significant corporate turnarounds in modern business.

According to Fortune, Culp first focused on lowering GE’s heavy debt burden and reshaping operations before leading the breakup of the conglomerate. GE HealthCare was spun off in early 2023, followed in April 2024 by the separation of GE Vernova, the power business, and GE Aerospace, the jet-engine company Culp now leads. Fortune says GE Vernova and GE Aerospace have posted especially strong stock gains since becoming independent, while GE HealthCare has been smaller but profitable.

The story emphasizes Culp’s manufacturing-centered approach, including visits to factory floors such as GE’s Plant One in Lynn, Massachusetts, which makes parts for military aircraft engines. Fortune connects his methods to earlier experience at Danaher, where he became CEO at 38 and applied lean production practices influenced by the Toyota Production System.

The account also includes supportive assessments from business figures such as former Amgen CEO Kevin Sharer and Trian’s Nelson Peltz, who had invested in GE. Their comments underscore why Fortune presents the GE split and recovery as a major case study in operational discipline, corporate restructuring and the unwinding of an iconic American conglomerate.