International Achievement Award

Art Harper ’78

Art Harper ’78 is a proven leader in global business who helped oversee the manufacture and distribution of many of the consumer plastics we use in everyday life, including appliances, water bottles and iPods. During his long career at General Electric and its divisions, Mr. Harper completed successful global assignments in Hong Kong for GE Plastics Greater China and in Belgium as vice president of global manufacturing for GE Plastics and GE Plastics Europe, India, and Africa. At GE, he served as a senior vice president as well as President & CEO of GE Equipment Services, a $6.5 billion global business. In this capacity, Mr. Harper was responsible for a portfolio of seven global businesses with operations in approximately 20 countries.

GE Plastics took him all over the world, to California, Massachusetts, the Netherlands and China. At GE Equipment Services, he headed one of four divisions when GE Capital split into four units. He oversaw GE Plastics Europe, Middle East, India, and Africa.

In December 2005, Mr. Harper retired from GE after 21 years of service to found GenNx360 Capital Partners, a private equity firm focused on investing in industrial and business services companies in the U.S. middle market with approximately $1.1 billion of capital under management.

A strong believer in giving back, Mr. Harper is involved with and sits on the boards of several nonprofits focused on improving the lives of minority children. In 2005, Black Enterprise named him one of the “75 Most Powerful African Americans in Corporate America," and that same year he received the Award for Professional Achievement by The 100 Black Men of Stamford, a group dedicated to improving the educational and economic conditions of those in need.