Charlene Begley, GE Plastics president and chief executive officer, will give the keynote speech at the Plastics Hall of Fame induction ceremony June 19 at NPE 2006, the Plastics Academy has announced.
The Plastics Hall of Fame celebration will take place in the Grand Ballroom of the Chicago Hilton and Towers, beginning with a reception at 6:30 p.m. to be followed by dinner and the induction of eight new members.
Begley, who was the first woman ever to lead a major GE unit, became president and CEO of GE Plastics in July 2005. She was named among Fortune magazine's 50 Most Powerful Women in Business for 2005.
Begley came to the Pittsfield, Mass.-based firm from GE Transportation Systems, where she had been president and CEO of that business, which makes locomotives in Erie, Pa. She joined General Electric Co. in 1988, as part of the financial management program, moving to the corporate audit staff in 1990. After four years, she joined GE Capital Mortgage Services as vice president of operations. In 1995, she was promoted to general manager of quality at GE Transportation Systems, becoming chief financial officer in 1997.
Begley moved to GE Plastics in 1998 as director of finance for Europe and was promoted to vice president of the corporate audit staff in 1999. In 2001, she joined GE Fanuc Automation North America as president and CEO. She went back to take the top post at GE Transportation Systems in 2003.
The eight new Plastics Hall of Fame members are Peter F. Bemis, Pak-Wing Chum, Dieter Freitag, Jack Koenig, Gottfried Mehnert, Georg Menges, Robert Schad and Jack Welch.
The Plastics Hall of Fame is housed at the National Plastics Center in Leominster, Mass.
Sponsor tables of 10 to the celebration cost $5,000; single tickets, $300. For more information, contact Kathryn Maguire at the Plastics Academy, tel. (978) 537-9529 or e-mail [email protected]