Time flies. If we roll back the clock to 2008, we find Joe Hogan leaving GE to run ABB. As the Wall Street Journal reported back then in Hogan Leaves GE Health Unit To Helm ABB: ?He has a track record of tackling big deals and has headed GE’s health-care unit since 2000, overseeing a period of rapid growth followed by more-recent problems.? Seems his predecessor at ABB, Fred Kindle, ?left the power-transmission and automation company [that] February after he fell out with Chairman Hubertus von Grunberg, apparently because he failed to line up sizable deals.? RBR?s Jim Nash hinted that something might be up with Hogan and ABB in early April Diving into ABB?s Discrete Automation Division and recounted the Hogan-led acquisition binge, writing ?ABB Group reports that it spent more than $10 billion to acquire 28 firms, mostly small, from 2010 to 2012. Almost like clockwork, it bought nine businesses in 2012, 10 in 2011 and nine in 2010.? ABB (NYSE:ABB) may not need a deal maker any longer; rather, maybe what?s needed now is a field general who can take these more than two dozen separate businesses and cultures and make them work as one. We?ll soon see. In the meantime, over the transom today came this official news of Joe Hogan?s departure. Zurich, Switzerland, May 10, 2013 ? ABB Chief Executive Officer Joe Hogan has decided to leave ABB for private reasons. A date for his departure has not yet been decided. Hogan will continue to lead ABB until a successor is announced. He is committed to a smooth transition. ?Joe is a great and successful CEO and has done a remarkable job of leading the company through the deepest economic crisis in living memory. ABB today is in a much better position than it was when he joined five years ago,? said Chairman Hubertus von Grunberg. ?I know this has been a tough and difficult decision for Joe and the Board sincerely regrets that Joe will be leaving the company.? In parting, Hogan wrote: ?I have informed the board that I have decided to leave ABB. This has been a difficult decision as I leave behind a strong and talented Executive Committee and a cohesive Board whose support I could always count on. I look forward to making a smooth transition with as little disruption as possible to the positive momentum that ABB has established.?