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Jack Welch
John Francis Welch Jr. (November 19, 1935 – March 1, 2020) was an American business executive. He was chairman and CEO of General Electric (GE) between 1981 and 2001. During his twenty-year tenure, GE's market value grew from $14 billion to $600 billion, and he has frequently been cited as one of the greatest chief executives of the twentieth century.
Under Welch, GE acquired the RCA Corporation in 1986 and expanded aggressively into financial services through GE Capital, which came to account for 40% of the company's revenue. He also restructured GE around a philosophy that each of its business units must rank first or second in its market, shedding those that did not meet that standard. By the end of his tenure GE was the most valuable company in the world.
In later years, his practices and legacy have drawn scrutiny from historians and journalists, particularly regarding his transformation of GE into a company heavily dependent on financial services. GE Capital collapsed in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, and GE was eventually broken into three separate companies. Additionally, his emphasis on short-term financial performance over long-term investment has been cited as having had a lasting effect on American corporate culture, including at companies such as Amazon.
When Welch retired from GE, he received a severance payment of $417 million; at that time this was the largest such payment in business history. In 2006, Welch's net worth was estimated at $720 million.
Jack Welch was born in Peabody, Massachusetts, the only child of Grace (née Andrews), a homemaker, and John Francis Welch Sr., a Boston & Maine Railroad conductor. Welch was an Irish American and a Catholic. His paternal and maternal grandparents were both Irish.
Throughout his early life in middle school and high school, Welch found work in the summers as a golf caddie, newspaper delivery boy, shoe salesman, and drill press operator. Welch attended Salem High School, where he participated in baseball, football, and captained the hockey team.
Late in his senior year, Welch was accepted to University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he studied chemical engineering. He worked in chemical engineering at Sunoco and PPG Industries during his college summers. In his sophomore year, Welch became a member of the Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity. He graduated in 1957 with a Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering, turning down offers from several companies in order to attend graduate school at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He graduated from the University of Illinois in 1960, with a master's and a PhD in chemical engineering.
Welch later received an honorary Doctor of Science from University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1982, and in 2009 an honorary doctorate from University of California, Los Angeles.
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Jack Welch
John Francis Welch Jr. (November 19, 1935 – March 1, 2020) was an American business executive. He was chairman and CEO of General Electric (GE) between 1981 and 2001. During his twenty-year tenure, GE's market value grew from $14 billion to $600 billion, and he has frequently been cited as one of the greatest chief executives of the twentieth century.
Under Welch, GE acquired the RCA Corporation in 1986 and expanded aggressively into financial services through GE Capital, which came to account for 40% of the company's revenue. He also restructured GE around a philosophy that each of its business units must rank first or second in its market, shedding those that did not meet that standard. By the end of his tenure GE was the most valuable company in the world.
In later years, his practices and legacy have drawn scrutiny from historians and journalists, particularly regarding his transformation of GE into a company heavily dependent on financial services. GE Capital collapsed in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, and GE was eventually broken into three separate companies. Additionally, his emphasis on short-term financial performance over long-term investment has been cited as having had a lasting effect on American corporate culture, including at companies such as Amazon.
When Welch retired from GE, he received a severance payment of $417 million; at that time this was the largest such payment in business history. In 2006, Welch's net worth was estimated at $720 million.
Jack Welch was born in Peabody, Massachusetts, the only child of Grace (née Andrews), a homemaker, and John Francis Welch Sr., a Boston & Maine Railroad conductor. Welch was an Irish American and a Catholic. His paternal and maternal grandparents were both Irish.
Throughout his early life in middle school and high school, Welch found work in the summers as a golf caddie, newspaper delivery boy, shoe salesman, and drill press operator. Welch attended Salem High School, where he participated in baseball, football, and captained the hockey team.
Late in his senior year, Welch was accepted to University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he studied chemical engineering. He worked in chemical engineering at Sunoco and PPG Industries during his college summers. In his sophomore year, Welch became a member of the Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity. He graduated in 1957 with a Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering, turning down offers from several companies in order to attend graduate school at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He graduated from the University of Illinois in 1960, with a master's and a PhD in chemical engineering.
Welch later received an honorary Doctor of Science from University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1982, and in 2009 an honorary doctorate from University of California, Los Angeles.