Beth Comstock, GE's CMO, named as its first female vice chair

Dive Brief:

GE’s Beth Comstock has added vice chair to her multi-hyphenate role as CMO at the storied company.
Comstock is the first woman to hold the vice chair title at 137-year-old business.
She had long been known as a key advisor for CEO Jeff Immelt, but the new title represents an official stamp of approval from GE leadership and board.

Dive Insight:

Following the history decision from GE, Comstock's roles at the company now include GE Lighting, GE Ventures and vice chair leading Business Innovations. She joins Daniel Heintzelman, John Rice and Keith Sherin as vice chairs, and the move formalizes her role as trusted advisor for CEO Jeff Immelt. In a statement Immelt said, “Her passion for change and innovation is critical to our growth strategy.”

The CMO took over GE's $3 billion lighting business in October last year, taking on a profit and loss responsibility as she transformed GE into a truly digital venture. "To reinvent the light bulb, no less," as Fortune aptly puts it, and providing a glimpse into what to expect next from General Electric.

Immelt told Fortune, “[Comstock] spearheaded our investment in the industrial Internet – driving our evolution to a digital industrial company.”