Factbox: Five facts about GE CEO Jeff Immelt

General Electric Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Immelt speaks during an interview with Reuters in his office at GE Corporate Headquarters in Fairfield, Connecticut in this May 9, 2011 file photo.

(Reuters) - Five facts about General Electric Co and its Chief Executive Jeffrey Immelt:

* Immelt took the reins at GE on September 7. 2001 - days before the hijacked plane attacks on New York and Washington that triggered a long slump in the key aviation market. GE shares currently trade at about half their $40.50 close the day before Immelt took the reins - though even Immelt's critics acknowledge the company's shares had become overvalued when they crossed $60 toward the end of predecessor Jack Welch's tenure.

* While GE makes a steady stream of small acquisitions and divestitures - several hundred million to a couple of billion dollars by company reckoning - Immelt has overseen some sizable unit sales, including the 2004 spin-off of Genworth Financial Inc and the 2010 sale of a majority stake in its NBC Universal media business to No. 1 U.S. cable operator Comcast Corp.

* With the exception of a brief stint at Procter & Gamble Co between his 1978 graduation from Dartmouth College, where he played football, and 1980 enrollment in Harvard Business School, Immelt has spent his entire career at GE, primarily at its plastics, appliances and healthcare units. He sold the plastics unit to Saudi Basic Industries Corp for $11.66 billion in 2007 and attempted to sell the appliances unit in 2008. Immelt's father, Joseph, was a manager at GE's aircraft unit and he met his wife, Andrea, when they worked together at the plastics business.

* Immelt, born in Cincinnati, Ohio, takes a less confrontational approach than his predecessor, Welch, who kept a relentless focus on costs and earned the nickname "Neutron Jack" for waves of mass layoffs early in his tenure as CEO. Immelt, by contrast, has focused more of his energies on finding new sources of revenue growth.

* A lifelong Republican, Immelt has embraced causes backed by Democrats, including expanding GE into renewable energy. In January 2011, U.S. President Barack Obama named Immelt as a top outside economic adviser on jobs and the economy.

(Reporting by Scott Malone; Editing by Claudia Parsons)