Jack Welch — who spent two decades as the chairman and CEO of General Electric, including while it was the parent company of NBC — died Monday, his wife announced. Welch was 84.
“More than anything else — leader, business icon, management genius — more than those things, although they are all true too — Jack was a lifeforce made of love,” Suzy Welch said in a statement obtained by CNBC. “Pure, bright, undiminishable love. His irrepressible passion for people, all people, his brilliant curiosity about every-single-thing-on-earth, his gargantuan generosity of spirit toward friends and strangers alike — they added up to a man who was superhuman yet completely human at once.
Suzy Welch added, “He changed the world by touching people deeply and authentically, helping them see and reach dreams they couldn’t even imagine for themselves. And somehow, crazily somehow, he also managed to be the greatest husband and step-father who ever lived, giving our family twenty amazing years of adventure, happiness, and joy. Our hearts, so much larger and fuller having known and loved him, are broken.”
This article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.