Jack Welch Dead: GE CEO for two decades was 84 years old

The head of the company was the head of the former parent company of NBC.

Jack Welch, who spent two decades as chairman and chief executive officer of General Electric, including while he was the parent company of NBC, died on Sunday in New York of kidney failure, announced his wife, Suzy. He was 84 years old.

According to CNBC, Welch died at home with his family and beloved dogs nearby.

Welch led GE from 1981 to 2001, presiding over impressive market growth as he downsized the company and bought and sold many companies.

Welch led GE’s acquisition of RCA, which then owned NBC. The $ 6 billion deal, announced in 1985, was the largest acquisition ever outside the oil industry at the time.

Welch has sold many of RCA's assets, including its RCA Records division, to focus on the revenues provided by the main broadcasting network. Under GE’s ownership, NBC increased its sales and profits to record numbers.

His decision to entrust Bob Wright, director of GE, with responsibility for NBC raised eyebrows, but his financial growth silenced opponents. Welch's handpicked successor Jeff Immelt then sold two of Welch's largest acquisitions, GE Capital and NBCUniversal, to focus the conglomerate on its main industrial assets.

Given his penchant for acquisitions, Welch acquired the reputation of being one of the great negotiators of the time. He was often considered a controversial manager, given that there were admirers and critics. His commercial success earned Welch nicknames "manager of the century" but also "Neutron Jack" for cutting jobs to increase profits.

"More than anything else – leader, business icon, management genius – more than these things, although they are all just as true – Jack was a life force made of love" said Suzy Welch in a statement obtained by CNBC. “Pure, brilliant and indestructible love. His irrepressible passion for people, all people, his brilliant curiosity for everything on earth, his gargantuan generosity towards his friends and strangers – they added to a man who was both superhuman and completely human.

"He changed the world by touching people deeply and authentically, helping them to see and fulfill dreams that they couldn't even imagine for themselves. And in one way or another another, he also became the greatest husband and stepfather who ever lived, giving our family twenty incredible years of adventure, happiness and joy. Our hearts, so much bigger and more filled with having known and loved him, are broken.

Born John Francis Welch Jr. in Peabody, Massachusetts, Welch was the son of a conductor from Boston and Maine.

Welch is also known for inspiring other business leaders. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, who worked at NBC when GE owned it, once said that he learned three key things from Welch about being a leader: work harder than anything the world around you; read everything your employees ask you to review; and don't be afraid to tell your boss what's wrong with a business plan.

Welch is also credited with these lines of management mantra because "mistakes can often be as good as a teacher as success"; "the team with the best players wins"; and "face reality as it is, not as it was or as you wanted".

A number of well-known business personalities visited social media on Monday to remember Welch, including President Donald Trump, who wrote"Jack Welch, former president and CEO of GE, a business legend, has passed away. There was no CEO like" neutron "Jack. He was my friend and partisan. We did wonderful business together. He will never be forgotten. My warmest sympathies to his wonderful wife and family! "

The survivors also include four children from his first marriage.