The primary role of GE’s Board of Directors is to oversee how management serves the interests of shareowners and other stakeholders. To do this, GE’s directors have adopted corporate governance principles to ensure that the Board is independent and fully informed of the key risks and strategic issues facing GE.

The GE Board held 13 meetings in 2007, and each outside Board The Management Development and Compensation member visited at least two GE businesses in 2007 without the Committee, comprised entirely of independent directors, held involvement of corporate management, in order to develop his eight meetings to approve executive compensation actions for or her own feel for the Company. The Board focuses on the areas our executive offi cers, and to review executive compensation that are important to shareowners — strategy, risk management, plans, policies and practices, changes in executive assignments and people — and, in 2007, received briefi ngs on a variety of issues and responsibilities, and key succession plans. The Nominating including: controllership and risk management, compliance and and Corporate Governance Committee, comprised entirely of litigation trends, U.S. and global tax policy, environmental risk independent directors, met three times to consider GE’s management, social cost trends, acquisitions and dispositions, governance charter and practices, and director nominations. intellectual property and copyright protection, global trends, the The Public Responsibilities Committee, in three meetings, reshaping and broadening of GE’s businesses, and cost reduction. reviewed GE’s 2007 Citizenship Report, globalization and free At the end of the year, the Board and each of its committees trade, NBC Universal intellectual property protection, political conducted a thorough self-evaluation as part of their normal contributions, and the GE Foundation budget. governance cycles. Finally, we want to thank Bill Conaty, Lloyd Trotter, Bob Wright, The Audit Committee, composed entirely of independent and Dave Nissen for their tremendous contributions and services directors, held 22 meetings in 2007 to oversee our fi nancial to the Company. All four of these individuals exemplifi ed what it reporting activities, the activities and independence of GE’s external means to be a GE leader and built strong organizations that will auditors, and the organization and activities of GE’s internal audit proudly carry on their successes. We thank them and wish them staff. It also reviewed our progress in meeting the internal control all the best. requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, and compliance with key GE policies and applicable laws.

36 ge 2007 annual report Board of Directors external directors internal directors (left to right)

Claudio X. Gonzalez 1, 2, 3 Alan G. (A.G.) Lafl ey 3 Douglas A. Warner III 1, 2, 3 Jeffrey R. Immelt 4 Chairman of the Board, Kimberly-Clark Chairman of the Board and Chief Former Chairman of the Board, Chairman of the Board and Chief de Mexico, S.A. de C.V., Mexico City, Executive Offi cer, Procter & Gamble J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Executive Offi cer, Mexico, consumer products. Company, personal and household The Chase Manhattan Bank, and Company. Director since 2000. Director since 1993. products, Cincinnati, Ohio. Morgan Guaranty Trust Company, (pictured on page 3) Director since 2002. investment banking, New York, Robert W. Lane 1 Robert C. Wright 4 New York. Director since 1992. Chairman of the Board and Chief James I. Cash, Jr. 1, 4 Vice Chairman, Executive Offi cer, Deere & Company, Emeritus James E. Robison Professor Ralph S. Larsen 2, 3, 5 General Electric Company. agriculture and forestry equipment, of Business Administration, Harvard Former Chairman of the Board and Director since 2000. Moline, Illinois. Director since 2005. Graduate School of Business, Boston, Chief Executive Offi cer, Johnson & (not pictured) Massachusetts. Director since 1997. Johnson, pharmaceutical, medical 2, 3 and consumer products, Chairman of the Board and Chief 2, 4 1 Audit Committee New Brunswick, New Jersey. Executive Offi cer, Avon Products, Inc., Co-Chairman and Chief Executive 2 Management Development and Director since 2002. cosmetics, New York, New York. Offi cer, Nuclear Threat Initiative, Compensation Committee Director since 1998. Washington, D.C. Director since 1997. Robert J. Swieringa 1 3 Nominating and Corporate Professor of Accounting and former Governance Committee Susan Hockfi eld 3, 4 Ann M. Fudge 4 Anne and Elmer Lindseth Dean, 4 Public Responsibilities Committee President of the Massachusetts Former Chairman and Chief Executive S.C. Johnson Graduate School of 5 Presiding Director Institute of Technology, Offi cer, Young & Rubicam Brands, Management, Cornell University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. global marketing communications Ithaca, New York. Director since 2002. Director since 2006. network, New York, New York. Director since 1999. Rochelle B. Lazarus 3, 4 Roger S. Penske 4 Chairman and Chief Executive Offi cer, Chairman of the Board, Penske Sir William M. Castell 4 Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, Corporation, Former Vice Chairman, multinational advertising, New York, Corporation, and Penske Automotive General Electric Company. New York. Director since 2000. Group, Inc., Detroit, Michigan. Director since 2004. Director since 1994.

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