Former GE Chairman and CEO Jack Welch Dies at 84
Posted on 03/02/2020
Jack Welch, the former Chairman and CEO of General Electric (GE), died at the age of 84 of renal failure.
Born John Francis Welch Jr. on November 19, 1935 in Peabody, Massachusetts, Welch was the son of a railroad conductor who rose through the ranks of GE. Welch joined GE as a chemical engineer in the plastics division in 1960. In April 1981, Welch became Chairman and CEO of GE.
Welch expanded GE’s market value from US$ 12 billion to US$ 410 billion. Welch was known as “Neutron Jack” and “manager of the century”, while he helmed GE and making it once the world’s most valuable company after Microsoft Corporation. Welch was known to give his managers free reign and created the “vitality curve” at GE, putting managers into three groups. Welch retired days before the 9/11 terrorist attacks occurred, in September 2001, from GE.