John Francis Welch, Junior was born on November 19, 1935 in Peabody, Massachusetts. He received his B.S degree in chemical engineering from the University of Massachusetts in 1957 and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in chemical engineering from the University of Illinois in 1960. Explaining his choice of subject, Welch has said: “I had an uncle who was an engineer at a power station in Salem, so an engineer was something. I took chemistry and engineering went together.” As being the first one from his family to go to college, Mr. Welch later joined GE’s Plastic division in Pittsfield, Massachusetts as a chemical engineer in 1960. Twelve years later, he was named the company’s youngest Vice President and was then named Vice Chairman in 1979. Shortly after, the company also announced that he would succeed Reginald H. Jones as the eighth CEO the company had appointed in 92 years.
In 1984 Fortune called Welch the “toughest boss in America” as GE virtually invented......
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