Baseball, Golf
A lifelong Boston Red Sox fan, Welch would test executives and potential hires on their baseball knowledge. He was also a golf addict, hitting the links with Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton and executives including Warren Buffett and Bill Gates.
After leaving GE, Welch served as a part-time adviser, a partner at investment firm Clayton Dubilier & Rice and consultant to companies including JPMorgan Chase & Co. He taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s business school, opened a management institute bearing his name and stayed in the public eye with guest-host gigs on CNBC and New England Sports Network.
Welch married Carolyn Osburn in 1959, and they had four children before divorcing in 1987. He was married to corporate lawyer Jane Beasley for 13 years. They divorced in 2002 amid revelations of an affair with Harvard Business Review editor Suzy Wetlaufer that began when Wetlaufer was interviewing him for an article.
The two married in 2004 and went on to collaborate on “Winning,” but not before divorce proceedings opened a public argument over Welch’s fortune, with his second wife’s lawyers claiming his asset valuation of $456 million was at least $100 million too low. The case was settled in 2003.
By then, Welch’s retirement package had been shown to include his $11 million Central Park West apartment in New York City, use of a private jet, a leased Mercedes-Benz, restaurant and laundry expenses, country-club fees and sports tickets. He later opted to pay for some perks himself.
--With assistance from Heather Burke.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.