Jack Welch

Businessman

JACK WELCH, who has died at 84, was a US businessman whose spectacular and sometimes ruthless efficiency techniques begat the trend for “downsizing” which swept the industrial world in the 1980s.

During his two decades as chairman and chief executive of General Electric from 1981 to 2001, during which it became the most valuable company in the world, he became one of the nation’s most well-known and highly regarded corporate leaders, personifying the socalled “cult of the CEO”.

A chemical engineer by training, Mr Welch transformed GE from a maker of appliances and light bulbs into an industrial and financial services powerhouse. During his tenure, its revenue grew nearly five-fold, and its market capitalisation increased 30-fold.

But some of the success came at the expense of the thousands of employees who lost their jobs in his relentless efforts to cut costs and rid

GE of unprofitable businesses.

His business success was matched by his outspokenness. “I should have torn down the structures sooner, sold off weak businesses faster than I did,” he said in his retirement memoir.

As it was, he earned the nickname Neutron Jack, after the bomb which was less harmful to buildings than to people.

In 1999, Fortune magazine

named him its manager of the century. But along with fame came greater scrutiny, and Mr Welch found himself defending his retirement compensation. Amid a raft of corporate scandals, details of his GE perks emerged in court papers during his 2002 divorce from his wife of 13 years, Jane Beasley.

They revealed he received millions of dollars in benefits, including unlimited personal use of company planes, office space and financial services. After the perks became public, he reimbursed the company for many of them, and paid for use of aircraft and other services.

In his later years, he also devoted more time to passions such as baseball – specifically, the Boston Red Sox.

He is survived by his third wife, Suzy Welch, and four children from his first marriage.