LIVES IN BRIEF
JACK WELCH, who has died aged 84, was one of the highest-profile figures in American business in the last three decades of the 20th century.
As chairman and chief executive of General Electric, he turned the company into a genuine powerhouse.
When he took over the top jobs in 1981, GE had recorded profits of $1.5 billion on sales of $25 billion; by the time of his departure, in 2001 (he left with a severance payment of $417 million), the company’s value had swollen to $410 billion.
He bought and sold numerous companies and pushed GE into the lucrative field of financial services and into television and the media; but he was equally aggressive when it came to slashing jobs. He did this with such ruthlessness that it earned him the nickname of ‘Neutron Jack’ -- a reference to the neutron bomb, which would target people while leaving buildings unscathed. In his first five years, GE’S workforce was reduced by 100,000.
In a statement about Welch’s passing, GE chairman and chief executive Larry Culp said: “Today is a sad day for the entire GE family. Jack was larger than life and the heart of GE for half a century. He reshaped the face of our company and the business world”.
Welch was born into an Irish working-class family in Peabody, Massachusetts, in 1935. After university he joined GE in 1960 and he began a steady climb through the ranks, becoming GE’S youngest vice-president in 1972.
When he won the top job in 1981 he set about transforming the culture of GE, which he achieved to electrifying effect. Fortune magazine named him ‘Manager of the Century’.
His 2001 memoir, Jack: Straight from the Gut, sold in excess of 10 million copies worldwide. In it, he conceded that he ought to have had torn down GE’S structures sooner than he did. “This so-called ‘Toughest Boss in America’ wasn’t tough enough”.
GLASGOW-BORN GORDON MALLOCH, pictured, who has died aged 86, in Midlothian, Virginia, was a successful businessman in the United States.
He was born on March 29, 1933, the second of six children to John and Annie (nee Ramsay) Malloch.
He emigrated to Canada in 1951 and completed his studies in chemistry at the University of Toronto. He returned to Scotland in 1955 to marry the love of his life, Eileen Anne Mahood. Together they returned to Canada and started a family.
With a keen eye for business, Gordon built successful plastics manufacturing companies in which he and his friend and business partner, Jürgen Arnemann, employed many workers across Canada and the US.
His faith in God was very important to him, his family said, “and his love for the Lord was apparent to all he met as he demonstrated his honesty, integrity, generosity, fairness, love, and compassion in his daily life”.
“A quiet and gentle man, he was a pillar of support for his family and was always there to listen, advise, cheer us on and help however he could. His wisdom, sense of humor, and ever-present smile will be greatly missed”, the family added.
Some of his fondest memories were playing rugby in his youth, golfing, travelling the world with Eileen, and spending time with his grandchildren. He is survived by Eileen, their children Morag and Graeme, daughter-in-law, Dina, seven grandchildren and eleven great-grandchildren.