GE Renewable Energy (Paris, France): Jan Kjaersgaard was appointed CEO of GE’s Offshore Wind business. He will succeed 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 VP 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. From 2014 to 2017 Kjaersgaard was CEO of international steel contractor Bladt Industries and continued to gain expertise in the offshore wind sector.
GE Renewable Energy is a $15.7 billion business that combines onshore and offshore wind, blades, hydro, storage, utility-scale solar and grid solutions as well as hybrid renewables and digital services offerings, GE Renewable Energy has installed more than 400-plus gigawatts of clean renewable energy and equipped more than 90% of utilities worldwide with its grid solutions. It has nearly 40,000 employees in more than 80 countries.