John Francis “Jack” Welch, Jr. was born on 19 November 1935, of Irish descent through both sets of grandparents, and is a retired American business executive, author, and chemical engineer. He is probably best known for his tenure between 1981-2001 as chairman and CEO of the General Electric corporation.
So how rich is Jack Welch? Sources estimate that Welch’s net worth is over $750 million; he earned his wealth during his long career as a chemical engineer and business executive spanning over 50 years.
Jack Welch Net Worth $750 Million
Jack Welch was born in Peabody, Massachusetts, USA. His father John Francis Welch, Sr, was American Irish conductor on Boston & Maine Railroad, and homemaker mother Grace Andrews. While Welch was in middle school and high school he worked in various jobs in summers such as newspaper delivery boy, golf caddy, drill press operator and shoe salesman. Also Jack participated in sport activities in Salem High School, like baseball, football and hockey. Jack studied chemical engineering at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and in college summers he worked in chemical engineering at Sunoco and PPG Industries. In 1957 Jack graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering, and went on to the University of Illinois for his Masters degree and PhD in chemical engineering in 1960, after having many offers to attend graduate school.
Welch worked as a junior chemical engineer at General Electric in Pittsfield from 1960, although in 1961 Welch decided to quit his job with GE because he was not satisfied with the raise he was offered and the bureaucracy at GE, but an executive at the company promised him to create the atmosphere Welch desired. In 1968 Jack was promoted to be the vice-president and head of General Electric’s plastics segment, then in 1971 he was named the vice-president of GE’s metallurgical and chemical division. From 1973 until 1979 he was the head of GE’s strategic planning, but also became senior vice-president and head of Consumer Products and Services Division from 1977 until 1979, when he was named to be the vice-chairman of GE. His career success with GE was crowned as he became the youngest chairman and CEO of GE in 1981. His net worth rose steadily during these 20 years with the company.
Increasing market value from $26 billion in 1981 to $280 billion under his wise leadership up to 2001, partly because, regardless of absolute performance, Welch fired the bottom 10% of his managers every year, on the other hand he rewarded the top 20% of managers with bonuses and stock options. Welch took an office in the GE Building at 30 Rockefeller Plaza after GE acquired RCA which were located in Rockefeller Center, GE sold off RCA to another company and kept NBC in 1986. From 1990 Welch made a great effort to shift GE from manufacturing to financial services.
Jack was Chairman of The Business Council in 1991 and 1992., and his overall success saw Fortune magazine name Jack “Manager of the Century” in 1999.
After retirement from General Electric, Welch became an advisor to Clayton, Duvilier & Rice, and to Barry Diller the chief executive of IAC.. In 2005, Jack published a book about management “Winning” co-written with Suzy Welch, which ranked number one on the Wall Street Journal bestseller list. No doubt this added to his net worth. Jack also wrote a popular column for Business Week with assistance of his wife Suzan for four years until 2009, also Welch has been teaching at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
In his honour, Sacred Heart University’s College of Business became “Jack F. Welch College of Business” in 2006. Welch established the Jack Welsh Management Institute (JWMI) in 2009, at Chancellor University, gained by Strayer University in 2011.
In his personal life, Jack Welch was married to Carolyn for 28 years and they had four children, but divorced in April 1987. In 1989 he married Jane Beasley who was a former mergers and acquisition lawyer, but they divorced in 2003. His third wife is Suzy Wetlaufer, who served as the editor-in-chief of the Harvard Business Review.
