Jeff bornstein biography

Jeff Bornstein could not control his emotions.

“I love this company,” began the tough-talking, hard-driving chief financial officer of one of the world’s most storied corporations.

Then he broke down in tears.

It was August 2017, less than a month after John Flannery, the brand-new CEO of General Electric, had taken the reins.

Flannery and Bornstein had both devoted their entire careers to GE, like most of those present for this moment at the annual summer meeting for top executives in Crotonville, NY, a leafy campus where the company’s professionals spend months being indoctrinated in the corporation’s proud culture.

But what should have been a celebration felt more like a wake.

Days earlier, the two men had met in Schenectady to examine the books at GE Power, the century-old company’s most venerable and profitable division — and had found a dry well where they expected cash.

Power’s “solid profits …