Michael H. Walsh

Michael Harries Walsh (born July 8, 1942 in Binghamton , New York ; died May 6, 1994 in Houston ) was an American manager . Among other things, he was Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the railway company Union Pacific Railroad and the conglomerate Tenneco Inc.

Life

Michael H. Walsh was born the third of four children. His father was the manager of several cinemas in Binghampton. In 1953 the family moved to Portland, Oregon .

In his youth, Walsh devoted himself primarily to American football at Lincoln High School . As the best running back of his year, he received a scholarship from Stanford University . Due to several shoulder injuries, however, he had to end his sports career. Soon after, his father died of colon cancer .

In 1964 he graduated in economics . In 1965 he was in the first group of the White House Fellows . There he met his wife, Joan Royter, who was overseeing foreign students at American University . In 1967 the two married. The couple had two children. He then studied at Yale Law School and graduated in 1969. This was followed by a first job as a public defender in San Diego . During this time he was instrumental in the founding of Common Cause by John W. Gardner . In 1977 he was by President Jimmy Carter to the prosecutor appointed for the Southern District of California. His activities and energy seemed to provide a good basis for further advancement in politics.

In 1980 he received an offer from the Cummins Engine Company of Columbus, Indiana for the position of Vice President, International Production. In addition to better pay, it was above all the challenge of the job that moved him to move to the private sector and to Indiana. Four years later he was Executive Vice President and a member of the Supervisory Board. Among other things, he was responsible for the introduction of Total Quality Management at Cummins in order to respond to the challenges posed by the Japanese competition (Komatsu).

After the resignation of John C. Kenefick as CEO and Chairman of Union Pacific Railroad and the brief intermezzo of Andrew L. Lewis in this role at the railway company, Michael Walsh was won over to take on this role. At that time the company was in the strong focus of the parent company Union Pacific Corporation , as it did not generate enough profit to achieve an adequate return on the capital employed. The company was faced with the challenge of implementing significant cost reductions. He reduced the number of employees from around 37,600 to 29,500. This also included 600 management jobs. At the same time, he reduced the management levels from nine to four.

Walsh speculated that he could succeed Andrew Lewis at the helm of the Union Pacific Corporation. However, this was not what Lewis wanted. In the summer of 1991 Walsh was poached by the conglomerate Tenneco Inc. The company struggled with its extensive corporate portfolio. In 1991, for example, a loss of $ 732 million was recorded. At first he was only supposed to head the ailing agricultural machinery division JI Case . However, he refused and he was ultimately appointed Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the entire company and was also specifically responsible for the areas of shipbuilding, energy and agricultural machinery. One of his first steps was to lay off 6,000 employees, halve the dividend and close several of the tractor manufacturer's plants. A total of 14,000 jobs (around 16%) were cut during his tenure. Thus it was possible to achieve a profit of 426 million dollars as early as 1993. The share price rose from $ 27.275 in December 1991 to $ 47 in May 1994.

In January 1993 he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. This diagnosis was openly communicated by im. In November 1993 he announced that cancer had been defeated. In January 1994, dead tissue was removed during an operation. As a result, on February 23, 1994, he announced his resignation from his position at Tenneco. On May 6, 1994 he died of the consequences of the disease.

literature

• Maury Klein: Union Pacific: The Reconfiguration: America's Greatest Railroad from 1969 to the Present . Oxford University Press, 2011.

Web links

• Allen R. Myerson: Michael H. Walsh, Executive, Is Dead at 51 . In: The New York Times . May 7, 1994, ISSN  0362-4331 ( nytimes.com [accessed September 6, 2017]).
• Michael H. Walsh . In: Getty Images . ( gettyimages.de [accessed on September 6, 2017]).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ MH WALSH LEAVES UP FOR POSITION AT TENNECO. Retrieved September 6, 2017 .