Biography

Jack WELCH

2003 ranking: 8

Former CEO and chairman of General Electric, Neutron Jack has been lauded over the last decade as the corporate titan of our times: tough when necessary, good with people, an insistent communicator, deeply attached to the company and dedicate to building the company's future. The fact that he has worked with one company all his working life is never held against him.

John Francis Welch Junior (b. 1935) joined GE's plastics division at Pittsfield, Massachusetts in 1960 - lured by its proximity to his family home and the $10,500 salary. He then began a speedy and spectacular climb up the GE hierarchy. In 1968, at the age of 33 he became GE's youngest general manager. Then, he became senior vice president and sector executive for the consumer products and services sector as well as vice chairman of the GE Credit Corporation. By 1979 he was vice chairman and executive officer. Along the way he built plastics into a formidable $2 billion business; turned around the medical diagnostics business; and began the development of GE Capital. His touch was sure. In December 1980, Welch was announced as the new CEO and chairman of GE. It was a record breaking appointment. At 45, Welch was the youngest chief the company had ever appointed. Indeed, he was only the eighth CEO the company had appointed in 92 years.

A raft of figures demonstrates the success of Jack Welch's time as CEO of GE: Between March 1981 and November 1999 the GE stock price rose from just over $4 to $133, allowing for four stock splits-an increase of 3,200 percent. From 1980 onward, the average total return of GE shares was about 27 percent and the company has returned 100 consecutive quarters of increased earnings from continuing operations. To put the company's performance in context: If you bought $10,000 worth of General Electric shares in March 1981 and reinvested the dividends, by the end of 1999 they would have been worth $640,000. Since 1981, GE sales have risen from $27.2 billion to $173.2 billion. Over the same period, profits rose from $1.6 billion to $10.7 billion. By 1999, General Electric was the second most profitable company in the world. Whichever way you cut the cake, Welch is one of the greatest corporate leaders of the 20th century.

Welch finally stepped down as head of GE on September 7, 2001. Welch left GE planning to see his autobiography Jack: Straight from the Gut published and carry out some consultancy work. His spectacular achievements at GE make the task facing Jeffrey Immelt ,the company's ninth CEO, even more of a challenge.

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