The Wall Street Journal - 26.11.2019

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. ** Tuesday, November 26, 2019 |B3

will face several challenges. She

will have to quickly become ac-

quainted with GE’s complex fi-

nances and find ways to cut

costs and boost efficiency at

plants, said John Inch, a man-

aging director at Gordon Has-

kett Research Advisors.

GE is selling off assets, in-

cluding a pending $21 billion

sale of a biotech business to

DanaherCorp., to reduce its

debt levels. Management’s long-

term goal is to lower GE’s net

debt to less than $30 billion. GE

had net debt of $49 billion at

the end of the third quarter.

GE submits thousands of

tax filings annually, according

to Mr. Inch, and in 2017 agreed

to move more than 600 tax

employees over to Pricewater-

houseCoopers LLP as part of a

slimming down exercise. “As

new CFO, you will have to deal

with a very complex tax struc-

ture,” Mr. Inch said.

—Nina Trentmann

and Costas Paris

contributed to this article.

search analyst Scott Davis

when her departure was an-

nounced in July. “But textbook

turnarounds almost always in-

clude a new finance staff.”

Ms. Dybeck Happe faces the

challenge of cutting costs and

continuing GE restructuring,

while helping GE reduce its pile

of debt. Under Mr. Culp, GE has

pushed a style of lean manage-

ment processes that emulate

Toyota Motor Corp. with rigor-

ous reviews of operations and

decision making, daily in some

cases. He has also said GE’s

turnaround would take years.

Ms. Dybeck Happe, 47 years

old, will be based in Boston and

oversee global finance organi-

zation as well as digital technol-

ogy and global operations func-

tions. A native of Sweden, she

currently serves on the boards

of French industrial company

Schneider Electric SE and Ger-

man electric utility E.ON.

In addition to the federal

probes and potential auditor

change, the new finance chief

considered several candidates

but Mr. Culp called Ms. Dybeck

Happe “a kindred spirit.”

GE and Maersk had differing

accounts Monday of when Ms.

Dybeck Happe would move to

the U.S. company. GE said she

would join in early 2020, while

Maersk told investors she could

leave as late as November 2020.

People familiar with the

matter said she is under con-

tract but would be released to

join GE when Maersk names a

replacement as CFO.

Wall Street analysts long

suspected that Mr. Culp, who

took over in October 2018,

would want to have his own

CFO in place, but Ms. Miller

held on for more than a year

before her boss decided to

make a change.

In July, GE announced the

plan for a CFO change without

having a successor ready to

step up, an unusual move at a

company once known for its

elite management develop-

ment and deep bench of capa-

McDonald’sCorp. agreed to
pay $26 million to settle a
long-running labor dispute
over allegations that the fast-
food giant underpaid staff in
certain California restaurants.
Several McDonald’s workers
sued the company in 2013 for
a variety of labor violations,
including using a timekeeping
system that prevented work-
ers from qualifying for over-
time pay.
The class-action suit in-
cluded tens of thousands of
McDonald’s cooks and cashiers
in corporate-run stores across
California.
The allegations included
workers being forced to clock
out during times when restau-
rants were quiet and barred
from taking breaks. Workers
also claimed that they bore
the cost of buying and clean-
ing uniforms.
McDonald’s denied any
wrongdoing as part of the set-
tlement, which applies only to
California.
“While we continue to be-
lieve our employment prac-
tices comply with the Califor-
nia Labor Code, we have
decided to resolve this lawsuit
filed back in early 2013,”
McDonald’s said.
The company also said it
regularly adds training and re-
sources to its corporate-owned
restaurants to promote com-
pliance with labor laws.
As part of the settlement,
McDonald’s agreed to permit
workers to leave the restau-
rant during their meal periods
and no longer dictate that
workers take rest breaks only
at the start of their shifts. It
also promised to maintain de-
tailed electronic time records
and provide additional uni-
forms to crew members.
McDonald’s has faced a
string of employee issues at
its U.S. restaurants this year.

BYPATRICKTHOMAS

McDonald’s

Settles

Workers’

Lawsuit

General ElectricCo. said it

hired an executive at A.P.

Moeller-MaerskA/Sasits

next chief financial officer,

tapping another outsider to

help the American conglomer-

ate turn around its operations.

Carolina Dybeck Happe, who

has been the Danish shipping

giant’s finance chief less than a

year, will join GE next year.

Previously, she spent 16 years

at Assa Abloy AB, a Swedish

maker of door locks. She suc-

ceeds Jamie Miller, who had

been GE’s CFO for about two

years and will leave the com-

pany after the transition.

GE CEO Larry Culp, the first

outsider to run the conglomer-

ate, said in July he was look-

ing to hire a new finance chief.

The Boston-based company is

trying to turn around its busi-

ness after two difficult years

that forced it to slash its divi-

dend and shed businesses.

The CFO change comes

while GE’s accounting prac-

tices are under investigation

by the Justice Department and

the Securities and Exchange

Commission. GE is also consid-

ering switching its auditor, af-

ter working with KPMG LLP

for more than a century.

Ms. Dybeck Happe is “a

proven global CFO who knows

how to deliver results and cre-

ate value,” Mr. Culp said in an

interview.

He praised her performance

at Assa Abloy, which he said

delivered strong shareholder

returns with a small central

management team and decen-

tralized structure.

“That is the frame that

would work well with us at

GE,” Mr. Culp said.

The GE boss said he had

never met Ms. Dybeck Happe

until the search process, which

he said had been his priority

in recent months. GE worked

with a recruiting firm and

BYTHOMASGRYTA

ble executives.

Ms. Miller was the first

woman in the CFO role at GE.

She was promoted into the job

in October 2017 after former

CFO Jeff Bornstein abruptly

announced his retirement.

Within weeks, GE slashed its

financial forecasts and its divi-

dend as problems in its power

business and financial services

arm came to light. Three

months later, GE revealed a

$15 billion hole in its legacy

insurance holdings and the

regulatory probes.

“Jamie Miller walked into

an impossible situation when

given the job,” said Melius Re-

Carolina

Dybeck Happe

is finance chief

at Danish

shipping

company

Maersk.

BUSINESS NEWS

GE Chooses Outsider as Its CFO

Change comes as the

company’s accounting

practices are under

federal investigation

The company is trying to turn around its business after two difficult years that forced it to slash its dividend and shed businesses.

LUKE SHARRETT/BLOOMBERG NEWS