Jack Welch

John Francis Welch Jr. (November 19, 1935 – March 1, 2020) was an American business executive. He was Chairman and CEO of General Electric (GE) between 1981 and 2001. When Welch retired from GE, he received a severance payment of $417 million, the largest such payment in business history up to that point. In 2006, Welch's net worth was estimated at $720 million. Early life and education Jack Welch was born in Peabody, Massachusetts, the only child of Grace (Andrews), a homemaker, and John Francis Welch Sr., a Boston & Maine Railroad conductor. Welch was Irish American and Catholic. His paternal and maternal grandparents were Irish. Throughout his early life in middle school and high school, Welch found work in the summers as a golf caddie, newspaper delivery boy, shoe salesman, and drill press operator. Welch attended Salem High School, where he participated in baseball, football, and captained the hockey team and became second lieutenant right after graduating.