Gerard Swope

Gerard Swope (December 1, 1872 – November 20, 1957) was a U.S. electronics businessman. He served as the president of General Electric Company between 1922 and 1939, and again from 1942 until 1944. During this time Swope expanded GE's product offerings, reorienting GE toward consumer home appliances, and offering consumer credit services.

Swope was born in St. Louis, Missouri to Ida and Isaac Swope, Jewish immigrants from Germany. He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1895. He married Mary Dayton Hill. He was the brother of Herbert Bayard Swope, and father of Henrietta Swope and John Swope, the Hollywood and Life Magazine photographer who married actress Dorothy McGuire.

He is possibly best known for his labor relations innovations. While at GE, Swope implemented numerous labor reforms, making conditions better for employees with voluntary unemployment insurance, profit-sharing, and other programs considered radical in their day. Swope increased sales and overall efficiency (economics), earning high profits and market share, while focusing on employee training, retention, and loyalty. Before the passage of the Wagner Act, Swope "had long supported labor legislation."

He served as Chairman of The Business Council, then known as the Business Advisory Council for the United States Department of Commerce in 1933. Swope's other Roosevelt Administration roles included member, Industrial Advisory Board of the National Recovery Administration (NRA) (1933); member, Bureau of Advertising and Planning of the Department of Commerce (1933); chairman, Coal Advisory Board (1933); member, National Labor Board (1933); member, President's Advisory Council on Economic Security (1934); and member, Advisory Council on Social Security (1937-1938). Swope was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in 1942. In 1942 he was chairman of the Committee to Study Budgets of Relief Appeals for Foreign Countries. For this work he won the Hoover Medal.

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