GE Offshore Wind has a new Boss

GE Renewable Energy has appointed Jan Kjaersgaard as the new CEO of its offshore wind business.

He succeeds John Lavelle, who is retiring after a 40-year career and plans to stay on board to assist with a transition over the next several months.

Kjaersgaard joins GE from FLSmidth, where he was most recently president of the cement business, including full EPC turnkey plants, products business and aftermarket services. He previously served as vice president of global sales of Siemens’ onshore and offshore businesses before becoming CEO of Siemens Wind Power Americas and later on CEO for Siemens Wind Power EMEA. He came to Siemens from Bonus Energy, where he led the organization’s commercial team and was involved in some of the first utility-scale offshore wind projects in European waters before the company was acquired by Siemens in 2004.

“Offshore wind is poised to grow dramatically in the coming years, and Jan is ideally suited to take GE’s offshore wind business to the next level during that global growth curve,” says Jérôme Pécresse, president and CEO of GE Renewable Energy.

“I also want to deeply thank John for the critical role he played in positioning our offshore wind business for success, as well as his many contributions to GE during his distinguished career,” he adds.

Lavelle held numerous senior leadership positions, including heading GE Energy’s activities in China and Southeast Asia, GE Energy’s global project operations, and GE’s digital energy/grid and coal gasification businesses. Under his leadership of GE’s offshore wind business, the company installed the first-ever offshore wind farm in the U.S., developed the Haliade-X turbine, and expanded the global presence of the business from Europe to the U.S., China and Japan.