GE biz whiz Jack Welch dead at 84

Jack Welch, who took over as CEO of General Electric in 1981 and led the company for two decades, died late Sunday. He was 84.

Welch (inset) headed up the conglomerate until 2001 and was credited with transforming the organization during his tenure, increasing GE’s market value from $14 billion to more than $400 billion.

“There was no corporate leader like ‘neutron’ Jack,” President Trump tweeted. “He was my friend and supporter. We made wonderful deals together. He will never be forgotten. My warmest sympathies to his wonderful wife & family!”

The business leader joined General Electric in 1960 as a chemical engineer and moved up to vice president within 12 years. In 1999, Fortune magazine honored him as “manager of the century.”

“Though he acted with what seemed at the time like blitzkrieg aggressiveness, he regretted in later years that he hadn’t moved even faster. Having been handed one of the treasures of American enterprise, he said, he was ‘afraid of breaking it,’ ” Geoffrey Colvin wrote for the magazine at the time.

“Not only did Welch not break it, but he transformed it as well and multiplied its value beyond anyone’s expectations.”

After retiring days before 9/11, Welch consulted, wrote books and began appearing on television as an expert source.

“More than anything else — leader, business icon, management genius — more than those things, although they are all true too — Jack was a life force made of love,” his wife, Suzy, said in a statement to CNBC on Monday.

“Pure, bright, undiminishable love. His irrepressible passion for people, all people, his brilliant curiosity about every single thing on Earth, his gargantuan generosity of spirit toward friends and strangers alike — they added up to a man who was superhuman yet completely human at once.”

Welch is survived by his wife and four children from his first marriage.