Winter 2009

Colleagues,

Today, more than ever, it is important for GE to be a good corporate citizen. In these uncertain times, our core values and culture continue to guide our work as a company and as employees.

As the economic downturn continues to affect families and individuals in our communities, the GE Foundation announced in December that we will direct more than $20 million to address hunger, homelessness and related issues in 2009. We are addressing these basic needs through grants to non-U.S. organizations, our United Way gift and with the creation of a Special Food and Shelter Matching Gifts Program to allow employees to direct funds locally.

GE is continuing to work on addressing healthcare in developing-world countries. In November, we doubled the number of Developing Health Globally™ hospitals completed in Honduras and will add two more to the list during 2009. This month, in Africa, we will be commissioning three completed hospitals in Kenya and two in Rwanda. The Developing Health Globally program leverages GE products, technology and expertise to make sustainable improvements to developing-world hospitals. To date, there are more than 90 Developing Health Globally sites in 14 countries throughout Africa, Latin America and Asia. We have donated more than 3,000 products, for a potential of impacting 30,000 patients a day.

I invite you to learn more about how our company is working to solve some of the world’s toughest problems by reading two new features on this web site.

The first feature, Strengthening the Rule of Law in Asia, explores how our commitment to the highest ethical and compliance standards as a company is driving our work with governments and partners to enhance the transparency and value of legal systems.

The second feature, A Citizenship Focus in Business Education, describes how GE is engaging with business schools to integrate corporate social responsibility into their curricula to help develop our future business leaders.

Please take a moment to explore our GE citizenship web site, as it is updated regularly. In this tough time, it is important that we continue to operate with our core values with the commitment to good citizenship.

Bob Corcoran
VP of Corporate Citizenship