Which CEO was known as 'Neutron Jack' for his aggressive layoffs?

Jack Welch was known as “Neutron Jack” for his aggressive layoffs at General Electric.

Welch became GE’s chief executive in 1981, succeeding Reginald Jones, and quickly pushed a demanding restructuring program. The nickname compared his management style with a neutron bomb: employees were removed while the company’s physical assets and facilities remained largely intact. It captured the fear surrounding his cost-cutting approach, though it was a media nickname rather than an official title.

Welch later wrote that GE had 411,000 employees at the end of 1980 and 299,000 at the end of 1985. Those reductions included jobs lost when GE sold businesses as well as cuts in continuing operations. He also closed or divested underperforming units and flattened GE’s management hierarchy.

A common mix-up is confusing Welch with later GE chief executive Jeffrey Immelt. Immelt led GE after Welch retired in 2001; the “Neutron Jack” label belongs to Welch’s early-1980s restructuring era.