JACK WELCH, GENERAL ELECTRIC
The storied career of the man who would become the best-known CEO in America, Fortune’s “Manager of the Century,” is well documented. The son of a railroad engineer, Jack Welch was born and raised in Salem, Massachusetts, went to the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and became a chemical engineer. He joined General Electric (GE) in 1960 at a salary of $10,500 a year. Relatively early in his career, he contemplated leaving GE, but a manager persuaded him to stay. Welch had definite ideas about the kind of company he wanted to be part of. In vintage style, he told his then-boss, “Well you are on trial.”
Welch became GE’s youngest CEO and chairman in 1981, and by then his well-formed personality became a force of ...
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