John F. "Jack" Welch, Jr.
General Electric Plastics
Inducted 2006
John F. Welch (1935 – 2020) was a chemical engineer and a prominent business leader. Born in Salem, Massachusetts, Welch received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Illinois. He began his career as a chemical engineer for General Electric Plastics in Pittsfield, MA, and became CEO of General Electric, one of the world’s largest and most successful corporations.
Welch joined General Electric’s Plastics Division in 1960 and managed the division and oversaw the development of materials, such as modified polyphenylene oxide (Noryl®), a revolutionary and widely used engineering plastic. He was appointed General Electric’s youngest vice president in 1972 and named vice chairman in 1979. In 1981, Welch succeeded Reginald H. Jones was General Electric’s eighth Chairman and CEO. Welch retired in 2001 after growing the company’s market value from $13 billion to $400 billion.
During his career at General Electric, Welch supported several plastics industry initiatives, including the National Plastics Center and Museum, the Society of the Plastics Industry (now PLASTICS), and the National Plastics Exposition.
Welch was named Manager of the Century by Fortune magazine (2000), and Most Admired CEO in the past 20 years by Chief Executive magazine readers (2005). He has authored Winning and Jack: Straight from the Gut.