GE names Trian co-founder Ed Garden to board

[October 09, 2017]  (Reuters) - U.S. industrial conglomerate General Electric Co  said on Monday it had elected Ed Garden, the founding partner and chief investment officer of activist investment firm Trian Fund Management, to its board of directors.

 The ticker and logo for General Electric Co. is displayed on a screen at the post where it's traded on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S. on June 30, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo

Garden will replace Robert Lane, who is retiring due to health reasons, GE said in a statement.

Nelson Peltz-led Trian, which has a stake of about 1 percent in GE, according to Thomson Reuters data, has been putting pressure on the company to improve its profit performance.

GE in March, after discussions with Trian, set a $2 billion cost-reduction target and linked the bonuses of its senior management to meeting profit-related goals.

"Like other GE shareholders, I am disappointed by the recent performance of GE's stock. But I continue to believe that GE represents an attractive long-term investment opportunity with significant upside," Garden said in a statement.

Garden is also a director at Bank of New York Mellon Corp <BK.N> and Pentair Plc <PNR.N>.

(Reporting by Rachit Vats in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza)

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