Early life and careerJack Welch was born in Peabody, Massachusetts to John, a conductor on the Boston & Maine Railroad, and Grace, a housewife. Welch attended Salem High School and later the University of Massachusetts Amherst, graduating in 1957 with a degree in chemical engineering. While at UMass he was a member of the Alpha chapter of the Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity. Welch received his master's and PhD degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1960. Welch joined General Electric in 1960. He worked as a junior engineer in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, at a salary of $10,500 per year. 'year. Welch was unhappy with the $1,000 raise he was offered after his first year, as well as the rigid bureaucracy within GE. He planned to leave the company to work with International Minerals & Chemicals in Skokie, Illinois. However, Reuben Gutoff, a young executive two levels above Welch, decided that the man was too valuable an asset to the company to lose. He took Welch and his first wife Carolyn out to dinner at Yellow Aster in Pittsfield and spent eight hours trying to convince Welch to stay. Gutoff promised to work to change the bureaucracy and create a small business environment. “Trust me,” Gutoff remembers pleading. “As long as I am here, you will have the opportunity to operate with the best of the big company and put aside the worst.” “Well, you’re on trial,” Welch retorted. “I'm happy to be on trial,” Gutoff said. “Trying to keep you here is important.” At dawn, Welch gave him his answer. “It was one of the best marketing jobs of my life,” Gutoff recalls. “But then he told me – and this is vintage Jack – 'I'm going to have the party anyway because I like parties, and besides, I think they have some little favors for me.'” Some 12 years later, Welch would boldly write in his annual review performance that his long-term goal was to become CEO. president in 1979. Welch became GE's youngest president and CEO in 1981, succeeding Reginald H. Jones. By 1982, Welch had dismantled much of the previous management team assembled by Jones. Tenure as CEO of GE During the 1980s, Welch worked to streamline GE and make it a more competitive company..