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| Birth Name(s) : Jack Welch |
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Full Jack Welch Biography
John Francis "Jack" Welch, Jr. (born on November 19, 1935 (1935-11-19) (age 71)) was Chairman and CEO of General Electric between 1981 and 2001. Welch gained a solid reputation for uncanny business acumen and unique leadership strategies at GE. During his tenure, GE increased its market capitalization by over US$400 billion. He remains a highly-regarded figure in business circles due to his innovative management strategies and leadership style.
Welch was born in Peabody, Massachusetts to Irish-Catholic parents John, a Boston & Maine Railroad conductor, and Grace, a housewife.
Welch attended Salem High School and later the University of Massachusetts Amherst ("UMass"), graduating in 1957 with a Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering. While at UMass he was a member of the Alpha chapter of the Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity.
Welch joined General Electric in 1960. He worked as a junior engineer in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, at a salary of $10,500 annually. 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.
"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.
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.
Welch adopted Motorola's Six Sigma quality program in late 1995. 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.
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.
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. 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. In addition, Welch is a vocal opponent of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.
The third wife of Jack Welch is Suzy Wetlaufer, a former editor of Harvard Business Review, who co-authored his latest book Winning as Suzy Welch. 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. 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. 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. 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.
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. Welch College of Business". |
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