Welch, Jack Welch

When Jack Welch Was Deputy Director for Intelligence — I’m convinced that this fiction found on the CIA site is some sort of coded message.

Washington, DC, September 2017: The following are the remarks of former DDI Jack Welch’s executive assistant, who recently served as a panelist at a joint CSI-DI conference celebrating the 65th anniversary of the Directorate of Intelligence.

Jack Welch became Deputy Director for Intelligence (DDI) after long service at General Electric. For me, a longtime student of management theory%u2014especially Welch’s%u2014his arrival offered much promise. Amazingly, his arrival also led to the seeming fulfillment of an old dream of mine, service as the DDI’s executive assistant. So forgive me, if I can’t help but look back on his four years as DDI with fondness.

Welch had come on board at the DCI’s request and because he felt it was his patriotic duty. He came at a time in which the global challenges we faced and the pace of technological change in the military and policy communities had created a climate in which many were asking how we should adapt. Nevertheless, when Welch arrived, he was greeted both with optimism and skepticism: optimism, because he had, after all, been hailed as one of the greatest%u2014if not the greatest%u2014business leaders of the time. During Welch’s 20-plus years as head of GE, he defied conventional wisdom and pioneered some of the modern business strategies that transformed the way we did business late in the 20th century and early in this one.