GE’s superstar CEO, Jack Welch, dies at 84
Jack Welch, who transformed General Electric Co. into a highly profitable multinational conglomerate and parlayed his legendary business acumen into a retirement career as a corporate leadership guru, has died. He was 84.
His death was confirmed Monday by GE. The cause of death was renal failure, his wife Suzy told The New York Times.
Welch became one of the nation’s most well-known and highly regarded corporate leaders during his two decades as GE’s chairman and chief executive, from 1981 to 2001. He personified the so-called “cult of the CEO” during the late-1990s boom, when GE’s soaring stock price made it the most valuable company in the world.
A chemical engineer by training, Welch transformed the company from a maker of appliances and light bulbs into an industrial and financial services powerhouse. During his tenure, GE’s revenue grew nearly fivefold, and the firm’s market capitalization increased 30-fold.
Welch’s results-driven management approach and hands-on style were credited with helping GE turn a financial corner, although some of the success came at the expense of thousands of employees who lost their jobs in Welch’s relentless efforts to cut costs and rid GE of unprofitable businesses.
Business success and outspokenness brought him wide fame.
In 1999, Fortune magazine named Welch as its “Manager of the Century.”
While Welch was known for being hypercompetitive, he also stressed giving everyone a fair shake.
In the 2005 book, “Winning,” Welch wrote that he would like to be remembered “as a huge advocate of candor and meritocracy, and believing everyone deserves a chance. And I’d like to be remembered for trying to make the case that you can never let yourself be a victim.”
Along with Welch’s fame came greater scrutiny. Welch found himself defending his retirement compensation. Amid a wave of corporate scandals, details of Welch’s GE perks emerged in court papers during his 2002 divorce from his wife of 13 years, Jane Beasley. He received millions of dollars in benefits, including unlimited personal use of GE’s planes, office space and financial services.
After the perks became public, Welch reimbursed the company for many of them, and paid for use of aircraft and other services.
His first marriage, to Carolyn Osburn, ended amicably in divorce after 28 years in 1987. Plans for his second divorce were disclosed shortly after Harvard Business Review editor Suzy Wetlaufer revealed she had become romantically involved with Welch while working on a story about him.
Welch didn’t blame the media for the attention the affair generated.
“Christ, if I was a journalist, I’d write a scandalous story,” Welch told the CBS television news magazine “60 Minutes” in a 2005 interview. “I mean, it’s a good story, but I don’t care. I fell in love.”
Wetlaufer resigned the Harvard editing post in 2002 because of a furor caused by her relationship with Welch. In a January 2012 interview with CNN’s Piers Morgan, when asked how he persuaded Wetlaufer to marry him, Welch replied, “My charm and probably my wallet.”
“We had a little scandal at the beginning,” he continued. “And it’s been the greatest 10 years of our lives.”
Born Nov. 19, 1935, as the only child of an Irish working-class family in Salem, Welch graduated from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1957 with a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering. He later obtained master’s and doctoral degrees in chemical engineering from the University of Illinois, finishing in 1960.
Welch joined GE that year as a junior engineer in Pittsfield.
He rose through the ranks, and built GE’s plastics business into one of the company’s fastest growing business units. He became a senior vice president in 1977, and vice chairman in 1979.