John Francis "Jack" Welch, Jr. (born November 19, 1935(1935-11-19)) was Chairman and CEO of General Electric between 1981 and 2001. Events 1095 - The Council of Clermont, called by Pope Urban II to discuss sending the First Crusade to the Holy Land Year 1935 ( MCMXXXV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. A chief executive officer ( CEO) or chief executive is typically the highest-ranking corporate officer ( executive) or administrator Welch gained a solid reputation for uncanny business acumen and unique leadership strategies at GE. He remains a highly-regarded figure in business circles due to his innovative management strategies and leadership style.

Welch's net worth is estimated at $720 million.

Early life and career

Jack Welch was born in Peabody, Massachusetts to John, a Boston & Maine Railroad conductor, and Grace, a housewife. Peabody (pronunciation ˈpiːbədi is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The Boston and Maine Railroad, also known by the abbreviation B&M, was the dominant Railroad of the northern New England region of the United

Welch attended Salem High School and later the University of Massachusetts Amherst, graduating in 1957 with a Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering. Salem High School is a four-year Public high school in Salem Massachusetts. The University of Massachusetts Amherst (otherwise known as UMass Amherst, Massachusetts, or UMass) is a research and Land-grant university in Year 1957 ( MCMLVII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link displays the 1957 Gregorian calendar) A Bachelor of Science ( BS, BSc or BSc in the UK; less commonly S Chemical engineering is the branch of Engineering that deals with the application of Physical science (e While at UMass he was a member of the Alpha chapter of the Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity. Phi Sigma Kappa (ΦΣK is a fraternity devoted to three cardinal principles the Promotion of Brotherhood, the Stimulation of Scholarship, and the

Welch went on to receive his M.S. and Ph.D at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1960. "PhD" redirects here for other uses see PhD (disambiguation. This article is about the flagship campus For other uses and locations of University of Illinois, see University of Illinois (disambiguation The University of Year 1960 ( MCMLX) was a Leap year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar.

Welch joined General Electric in 1960. Year 1960 ( MCMLX) was a Leap year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. He worked as a junior engineer in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, at a salary of $10,500 annually. An engineer is a person professionally engaged in a field of Engineering. A salary is a form of periodic payment from an Employer to an Employee, which may be specified in an Employment contract. Welch was displeased with the $1,000 raise he was offered after his first year, as well as the strict bureaucracy within GE. He planned to leave the company to work with International Minerals & Chemicals in Skokie, Illinois. Skokie (formerly Niles Center is a Village in Cook County, Illinois, United States.

However, Reuben Gutoff, a young executive two levels higher than Welch, decided that the man was too valuable a resource for the company to lose. He took Welch and his first wife Carolyn out to dinner at the Yellow Aster in Pittsfield, and spent eight hours trying to convince Welch to stay. Gutoff vowed to work to change the bureaucracy to create a small-company environment.

"Trust me," Gutoff remembers pleading. "As long as I am here, you are going to get a shot to operate with the best of the big company and the worst part of it pushed aside. " "Well, you are on trial," retorted Welch. "I'm glad to be on trial," Gutoff said. "To try to keep you here is important. " At daybreak, Welch gave him his answer. "It was one of my better marketing jobs in life," recalls Gutoff. "But then he said to me--and this is vintage Jack--'I'm still going to have the party because I like parties, and besides, I think they have some little presents for me. '" Some 12 years later, Welch would audaciously write in his annual performance review that his long-term goal was to become CEO.

Welch was named a vice president of GE in 1972. __FORCETOC__ For the Vice President of the United States, their roles and other information see Vice President of the United States. Year 1972 ( MCMLXXII) was a Leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. He moved up the ranks to become senior vice president in 1977 and vice chairman in 1979. Also 1977 (album by Ash. Year 1977 ( MCMLXXVII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays Year 1979 ( MCMLXXIX) was a Common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1979 Gregorian calendar) Welch became GE's youngest chairman and CEO in 1981, succeeding Reginald H. Jones. Reginald H Jones ( 11 July 1917 - was the chairman and CEO of General Electric from 1972 to 1981 By 1982, Welch had disassembled much of the earlier management put together by Jones.

Tenure as CEO of GE

Through the 1980s, Welch worked to streamline GE and make it a more competitive company. He also pushed the managers of the businesses he kept to become more productive. Welch worked to eradicate inefficiency by trimming inventories and dismantling the bureaucracy that had almost led him to leave GE in the past. He shut down factories, reduced payrolls and cut lackluster old-line units. Welch's philosophy was that a company should be either #1 or #2 in a particular industry, or else leave it completely. Although he was initially treated with contempt by those under him for his policies, they eventually grew to respect him. Welch's strategy was later adopted by other CEOs across corporate America.

Each year, Welch would fire the bottom 10% of his managers. He earned a reputation for brutal candor in his meetings with executives. He would push his managers to perform, but he would reward those in the top 20% with bonuses and stock options. He also expanded the broadness of the stock options program at GE from just top executives to nearly one third of all employees. Welch is also known for destroying the nine-layer management hierarchy and bringing a sense of informality to the company.

During the early 1980s he was dubbed "Neutron Jack" (in reference to the neutron bomb) for eliminating employees while leaving buildings intact. A neutron bomb, technically referred to as an enhanced radiation weapon (ERW is a type of tactical Nuclear weapon formerly built mainly by the United States In Jack: Straight From The Gut, Welch states that GE had 411,000 employees at the end of 1980, and 299,000 at the end of 1985. Of the 112,000 who left the payroll, 37,000 were in sold businesses, and 81,000 were reduced in continuing businesses. In return, GE had increased its market capital tremendously.

In 1986, GE acquired NBC, which was located in Rockefeller Center; Welch subsequently took up an office in the GE Building at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. During the 1990s, Welch helped to modernize GE by shifting from manufacturing to financial services through numerous acquisitions.

Welch adopted Motorola's Six Sigma quality program in late 1995. Six Sigma is a Business management strategy originally developed by Motorola, that today enjoys wide-spread application in many sectors of industry He led the company to massive revenues. In 1980, the year before Welch became CEO, GE recorded revenues of roughly $26. 8 billion. In 2000, the year before he left, the revenues increased to nearly $130 billion. When Jack Welch left GE, the company had gone from a market value of $14 billion to one of more than $410 billion at the end of 2004, making it the most valuable and largest company in the world.

At the time of his retirement, Welch received a salary of $4 million a year, followed by his record retirement plan of $8 million a year. In 1999 he was named "Manager of the Century" by Fortune magazine.

There was a lengthy and well-publicized succession planning saga prior to his retirement between James McNerney, Robert Nardelli, and Jeffrey Immelt, with Immelt eventually selected to succeed him as Chairman and CEO. Walter James "Jim" McNerney Jr, is an American Businessman. Robert Louis Nardelli (born May 17 1948 in Old Forge Pennsylvania is the chairman and chief executive officer of Chrysler. Jeffrey Robert Immelt (born February 19 1956, Cincinnati OH) is the current Chairman of the board and Chief executive officer Nardelli became the CEO of Home Depot until his resignation in early 2007, while McNerney became CEO of 3M until he left that post to serve in the same capacity at Boeing. The Home Depot ( is an American Retailer of Home improvement and construction products and services 3M Company ( formerly Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company until 2002 is an American multinational conglomerate corporation with a worldwide The Boeing Company is a major Aerospace and defense corporation originally founded by William E

Welch announced the news of his succession to Jeff Immelt almost the same way as his earlier boss Reg Jones had announced it to him. Welch begins his bestselling book Jack: Straight from the Gut, with his experience of this.

Criticism

Some people believe that Welch is given too much credit for GE's success. They contend that individual managers are responsible for the company's success. For example GE Capital, under Gary C. GE Capital is one of four major units of General Electric, On 27 July 2008 General Electric announced that GE Capital is once again a single unit of GE Wendt, contributed nearly 40% of the company's total earnings while NBC and Robert C. Wright worked to turn the network leading to five years of double-digit earnings growth. Robert ("Bob" Charles Wright (born 1943 was a US television businessman having served as Chairman of NBC Universal. It is also held that Welch did not rescue GE from great losses as the company had 16% annual earnings growth during the tenure of his predecessor, Reginald H. Jones. Critics also say that "the pressure Welch imposes leads some employees to cut corners, possibly contributing to some of the defense-contracting scandals that have plagued GE, or to the humiliating Kidder, Peabody & Co. bond-trading scheme of the early 1990s that generated bogus profits". Kidder Peabody & Co was a US-based securities firm established in Massachusetts in 1865. ^[1]

Welch has also received criticism over the years for his lack of compassion for the middle class and working class. Welch has publicly stated that he is not concerned with the discrepancy between the salaries of top-paid CEOs and those of average workers. When asked about the issue of excessive CEO pay, Welch has stated that such allegations are "outrageous" and has vehemently opposed proposed SEC reforms affecting executive compensation. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (commonly known as the SEC) is an independent agency of the United States government which holds primary responsibility Countering the public uproar over excessive executive pay (including backdating stock options, golden parachutes for nonperformance, extravagant retirement packages, etc. ), Welch stated that CEO compensation should continue to be dictated by the free market, without interference from government or other outside agencies. ^[2] In addition, Welch is a vocal opponent of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 ( also known as the Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act of 2002 and commonly called SOX or Sarbox ^[3]

Personal life

Welch has had a slight stutter since childhood. He had four children with his first wife, Carolyn. They divorced amicably in April 1987 after 28 years of marriage. Divorce or dissolution of marriage is the termination of a Marriage. Year 1987 ( MCMLXXXVII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link displays 1987 Gregorian calendar) His second wife, Jane Beasley, was a former mergers-and-acquisitions lawyer. She married Jack in April 1989, and they divorced in 2003. Year 1989 ( MCMLXXXIX) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link displays 1989 Gregorian calendar) Year 2003 ( MMIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. While Welch had crafted a prenuptial agreement, Beasley insisted on a ten-year time limit to its applicability, and thus she was able to leave the marriage with an amount believed to be in the range of $180 million. A prenuptial agreement, antenuptial agreement, or premarital agreement, commonly abbreviated to prenup or prenupt, is a Contract entered ^[4]

The third wife of Jack Welch is Suzy Wetlaufer, a former editor of Harvard Business Review, who co-authored his 2005 book Winning as Suzy Welch. Suzy Welch (née Spring (b 1959) a noted commentator and business journalist is the former editor of the Harvard Business Review, and has written extensively Harvard Business Review is a general Management Magazine published since 1922 by Harvard Business School Publishing, owned by the Harvard Wetlaufer served briefly as the editor-in-chief of the Harvard Business Review before being forced to resign in early 2002 after admitting to having been involved in an affair with Welch while preparing an interview with him for the magazine.

Welch underwent triple bypass surgery in May 1995. Year 1995 ( MCMXCV) was a Common year starting on Sunday. Events of 1995 He returned to work full time in September of the same year and also adopted an exercise schedule that included golf. Welch is a member of Augusta National Golf Club. Augusta National Golf Club, located in the American city of Augusta Georgia, is one of the most storied and exclusive golf clubs in the world However, in Winning, Welch acknowledges that back problems forced him to give up playing golf, and that surprisingly, he doesn't miss it. He acknowledges using his time formerly spent on the golf course to consult with companies and indulge other personal interests such as modern art, international travel, teaching, and attending Red Sox games. The Boston Red Sox are a Professional baseball team based in Boston Massachusetts, and are the reigning (2007 World Series Champions. Since then, he has picked up his golf game, playing at courses such as Nantucket Golf Club and Sankaty Head Golf Club among numerous others. Sankaty Head Golf Club is the one of the Eastern-most Golf courses in the United States, perched on the edge of Nantucket Island in Siasconset Massachusetts

On January 25, 2006, Jack Welch gave his name to Sacred Heart University's College of Business, which will be known as the "John F. Events 41 - After a night of negotiation Claudius is accepted as Roman Emperor by the Senate Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. Sacred Heart University is a Catholic university located in suburban Fairfield, Connecticut, near the border with Bridgeport. Welch College of Business". ^[5]

Welch is a strong believer in management education. In September 2006, Jack Welch began teaching a class at the MIT Sloan School of Management to a hand-picked group of 30 students with a demonstrated career interest in leadership. The word leadership can refer to Those entities that perform one or more acts of leading

See also

• Vitality curve

References

Books

• At Any Cost: Jack Welch, General Electric, and the Pursuit of Profit, (ISBN 0-375-70567-8)
• Jack: Straight From The Gut, (ISBN 0-446-69068-6)
• The New GE: How Jack Welch Revived an American Institution, (ISBN 1-55623-670-0)
• Winning by Jack and Suzy Welch - HarperCollins (April 2005), (ISBN 0-06-075394-3)
• Winning: The Answers by Jack and Suzy Welch - Harper 2006, (ISBN 0-00725264-1)
• Jack Welch and the GE way : management insights and leadership secrets of the legendary CEO by Robert Slater (ISBN 0070581045)

External links

Bios

• Official Website of Jack Welch
• IMG Speakers Official Agent for Jack Welch
• Jack Welch Bio/book summaries
• Summary Biography from Global Leaders

Articles

• IMNO Interviews Jack Welch Nov 2004
• Jack Welch's Encore - 1996 Business Week article
• The Six-Sigma Zone
• How Jack Welch Runs GE - 1998 Business Week article
• Jack Welch: My Personal History
• Tearing up the Jack Welch playbook - 2006 Fortune article

Awards

• FORTUNE - GE's Jack Welch Named Manager of the Century - November 01, 1999

Videos

• April 27, 2005 - Mr. Welch speaks about creating candor in the workplace at the Stanford Graduate School of Business
• April 12, 2005 - A Conversation with Jack Welch at MIT Sloan School of Management
• October 16, 2001 - Mr. Welch speaks at the Kellogg School of Management
• 2000 (?) - Mr. Welch at the Fairfield University-Charles F. Dolan School of Business
• September 12, 2005 Mr. Welch speaks at the Rotman School of management in Toronto
• Jack Welch talks about Leadership and the State of Corporate America at UCLA Anderson School of Management
• October 16, 2001 - Jack Welch at University of Chicago Graduate School of Business