Jack Welch, who led General Electric for 20 years, died on Sunday at his home in Manhattan. He was 84. According to his wife, Suzy Welch, the cause was renal failure.
“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. Jack was a strong and constant influence throughout my career despite never having worked directly for him. When I last saw him, what I remember most vividly was when he asked me, ‘So how exactly are you running the company?’ Jack was still in it – committed to GE’s success. And to have Jack Welch ask me how I am running GE is pretty humbling,” said GE Chairman and CEO Larry Culp in a statement.
Welch joined GE as an engineer at age 24 in 1960, and ascended to chairman and CEO in 1981. He retired from the company in 2001.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Welch’s success, driven by a hard-nosed strategy to slash less profitable businesses and unproductive employees, made him an international celebrity in the 1980s and drove GE to become the most valuable U.S. company during the 1990s. He groomed a generation of business leaders who went on to run giants such as Boeing and Home Depot.
