GE Names Michael Holston as New General Counsel

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Michael Holston. Photo by: Jason Doiy/ALM. [/caption] Boston-based digital industrial giant General Electric named a new general counsel Friday.Michael Holston, most recently general counsel of New Jersey-based pharmaceutical company Merck & Co., will step in as the top lawyer for GE on April 9. Holston replaces Alex Dimitrief, who will fully transition to his new role of senior vice president and president and CEO of GE’s Global Growth Organization, as announced back in December. Holston and Dimitrief now both report directly to GE chief executive John Flannery. "Mike brings more than 25 years of experience working across multiple industries,” Flannery said in Friday’s announcement. “He is an accomplished legal strategist and litigator as well as an expert in managing compliance. I look forward to working with him as he leads our world-class legal organization.”In his new legal role at GE, Holston will be tasked with leading the company’s global legal, compliance and ethics, corporate secretary and environment health and safety organizations, according to the announcement. The legal department, as of one year ago, included approximately 800 in-house lawyers, according to an interview with GE’s former general counsel. “I am humbled to have the opportunity to lead GE’s global legal organization, to work with John and his new leadership team and to contribute to GE, an iconic company, as it transforms for the future,” Holston said in the announcement of his hire. Holston was not immediately available for comment, and a spokesperson did not comment beyond the press release. Holston is a seasoned GC who has worked at some of the biggest companies in the country. He joined Merck in 2012 as EVP and chief ethics and compliance officer, before advancing to the general counsel seat.Prior to Merck, Holston led the legal department of Hewlett-Packard as general counsel, EVP and board secretary from 2007 to 2012. Before going in-house, he worked as a partner with Morgan, Lewis & Bockius and Drinker Biddle & Reath. He also worked as a prosecutor in the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Holston’s predecessor Dimitrief joined GE in 2007 as the VP of litigation and legal policy, according to his LinkedIn profile. He served in top legal roles in different GE divisions including GE Energy and GE Capital before being named general counsel of the company in 2015. The appointment of a new general counsel comes during a week that has brought some challenges for the company. The Wall Street Journal claimed in a report on Wednesday that former chief executive Jeffrey Immelt, who left the company in October, was misleading the public in his representation of the company’s financial performance. A GE spokesperson disputed the WSJ's reporting in a CNBC report Thursday.