He's landed a $7.1 million book deal with Time Warner that only the Pope and Hillary Clinton can top.

His company has had superlative after superlative heaped upon it--from "Global Most Admired Company" by Fortune to first in Forbes' ranking of the top businesses in America.

His business strategy has been dissected for mass consumption in dozens of how-to books, and he recently broke 70 in his golf game.

So who's sitting so pretty?

It's manager extraordinaire Jack Welch, chair and CEO of General Electric (GE) and Harvard Business School's Class Day speaker this year.

Set to retire in December after 20 years at the helm of the world's largest and most valuable company, the 65-year-old Welch has been hailed as the preeminent businessperson of America, and perhaps the world.

"In 1993 people laughed at me when I said, 'There are two great leaders in the 20th century. One is Alfred Sloane [of General Motors] and the one that will really be remembered is Jack Welch,'" says Noel M. Tichy, a GE observer and University of Michigan management professor.

"But that was in 1993 when Welch was still not seen as the best of the best," Tichy says.

People First, Strategy Second

Born John F. Welch Jr. to working-class parents in Salem, Mass., Welch grew up with a stutter that Tichy says helped to develop Welch's self-confidence.

"Can you imagine, a working-class kid with a stutter? He was constantly having to prove himself," Tichy says.

Welch, who was the first in his family to earn a college degree, graduated from the University of Massachusetts in 1957 with a B.S. in chemical engineering. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in chemical engineering from the University of Illinois.

Welch joined GE as a junior engineer in 1960 but quit after a year, tired of GE's bureaucracy, to head to International Minerals & Chemicals in Skokie, Ill. If not for the intervention of a superior who was impressed with the young Welch, the futures of GE and Welch might have looked very different.

As it was, the superior persuaded Welch to stay. And under the direction of Welch, GE has broken one earnings record after another as other businesses have come tumbling down under the pressures of global competition. With $437 billion in assets and $130 billion in sales, GE has grown to include NBC in its empire as well as several high-technology manufacturing divisions and 24 financial services divisions.