General Electric's board of directors removed John Flannery as CEO due to frustration with the pace of his turnaround plan for the embattled industrial conglomerate, sources familiar with the situation told CNBC. Flannery took on the job in August 2017.
"The board was unsatisfied with the execution that was taking place under John Flannery's leadership," CNBC's Andrew Ross Sorkin said on "Squawk Box," citing sources. GE installed former CEO Lawrence Culp as his successor.
The frustration among GE board members "hardened over the last several weeks," Sorkin said. Part of that frustration was "with the lack of concrete decision-making made in a very short time frame," CNBC's David Faber added, citing sources.
Flannery's removal "was not driven by the turbine issue" that was revealed Sept. 20 but instead was a reaction "to the slow pace of change," Sorkin said. The company said it had discovered a problem with its newest line of natural gas-fired power turbines.
GE's board of directors met Wednesday to discuss how widespread the turbine failure issue was. Flannery told the board at that meeting GE would miss its year-end targets and take the $23 billion charge to its power business, people familiar with the situation told Faber.
The board met again on Thursday, this time to discuss terminating Flannery, according to Faber.
"Soon after that they decided it was time for him to depart," Faber said on CNBC's "Closing Bell."
GE shares closed Monday trading 7.1 percent higher at $12.09 a share, after jumping as high as $13.07 a share.