WEINSTOCK, SIR ARNOLD, BARON

WEINSTOCK, SIR ARNOLD, BARON (1924–2002), British industrialist. Born in London, the son of a tailor, Weinstock studied statistics before becoming a junior administrative officer in the Admiralty in 1944. He left government service in 1947 to engage in finance and real estate development, and in 1952 became the managing director of Radio and Allied Industries. In 1949 he married the daughter of Martin (later Sir Martin) Sobell, the head of the General Electric Company (gec). He became a director of gec in 1961 and served as its managing director from 1963 to 1996. Under his direction, after many economies in production and management, gec quadrupled its earnings. In 1967 Weinstock won a prolonged, bitter battle for control over Associated Electrical Industries. gec and aei were merged into General Electric Ltd., which thus became the biggest telecommunications and electronics combine in Britain. In 1970 he received a knighthood for his contribution to the expansion of his country's exports. He was then invited by the British Government to head a new company responsible for the development of Britain's domestic nuclear power, in which gec holds a 50% interest. He was described as "the ablest young industrialist in England" and became one of the most successful British industrialist of his time. He was given a life peerage in 1980.

bibliography:

Fortune (1967), 61–62; Business Week (Aug. 24, 1968), 70–72. add. bibliography: S. Aris, Arnold Weinstock and the Making of gec (1998).

[Morton Mayer Berman]