Local exec to head GE Vernova
Victor Abate to lead wind business of energy spinoff
SCHENECTADY — Longtime local General Electric Co. executive Victor “Vic” Abate was chosen last week to lead the wind business of GE’S energy spinoff, GE Vernova.
The appointment assures that GE Vernova, which has established its new corporate headquarters in Cambridge, Mass., will have top leaders with strong ties to the Capital Region.
Both Abate, who will be CEO of GE Vernova’s wind segment, and his boss, GE Venova CEO Scott Strizik, have lived in the Capital Region for years working at GE’S operations in Schenectady and Niskayuna.
Abate was previously head of GE’S renewable energy business, and both have had leadership roles in GE’S turbine business that builds power plants across the globe.
In addition to running GE Research in Niskayuna and serving as GE’S chief technology officer, Abate had recently been leading GE Vernova’s on-shore wind business. As CEO of all of GE Vernova’s wind business, Abate has a much larger and more important portfolio.
“I’m very pleased that Vic will expand his role at GE Vernova and lead across our critically important wind segment, where we are working to accelerate business improvement and drive the energy transition forward,” Strazik said in a statement when Abate’s appointment was announced. “Vic and I have worked closely together for nearly a decade across GE, and I’ve seen his ability to successfully impact business transformation from multiple vantage points.”
GE has about 2,500 employees in Schenectady County.
GE Vernova is expected to be spun off from GE next year. Earlier this year, GE spun off its health care business into a new company called GE Healthcare.
As part of the splintering of GE into three companies, each one is getting its own “advanced research centers” that will focus on its specialties. The research centers will be based