Arnold Weinstock, Baron Weinstock, Kt. OMRI, (29 July 1924 – 23 July 2002) was an English industrialist and businessman known for making General Electric Company one of Britain's most profitable companies. The City criticized Weinstock for his financial caution but after he retired as managing director in 1996, under his successor a series of ill-judged acquisitions led to catastrophic losses. Early life Born in Stoke Newington, Hackney, London, the son of working class Polish-Jewish immigrants Golda () and Simon Weinstock, Arnold Weinstock was educated at the London School of Economics. Career He was a junior administrative officer in the Admiralty in the period 1944–1947. In 1949, he married Netta Sobell, the daughter of industrialist Michael Sobell. The couple had two children, Simon (1952–1996) and Susan (b 1955). Lady Weinstock died in 2019. In 1954 he joined his father-in law's electronics company, Radio & Allied Industries Ltd., and in 1963 orchestrated its merger with the General Electric Company, becoming the largest shareholder of GEC. He served as a member of the board of directors from 1961 to 1963 and was managing director from 1963 to 1996, thence chairman Emeritus. He transformed the firm, raising its turnover from £100m in 1960 to £11bn at his retirement in 1996. He was a director of Rolls-Royce (1971) Ltd from 1971 to 1973. He was a significant investor in London Weekend Television at its launch in 1968. He was Vice-President of the Friends of the Ravenna Festival (1993–1994), a trustee of the British Museum (1985–1996), the Royal Philharmonic Society and the Foundation Fund (1984–1992). He became a friend of the conductor Riccardo Muti, whose recordings he chose on the Desert Island Discs radio programme. He was also senior trustee of the Next Century Foundation, a peace process organisation he helped establish. He established the Weinstock Fund, a charitable foundation that supports a variety of benevolent and cultural causes. He became an Honorary Fellow of his alma mater, LSE, in 1985. The Guardian newspaper called him "Britain's premier post-second-world-war industrialist." He was appointed a Knight Bachelor in the 1970 Birthday Honours for services to export and was created a life peer in the 1980 Birthday Honours as Baron Weinstock, of Bowden in the County of Wiltshire on 17 July 1980. He was also a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society, an Honorary Fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge (from 1982), and an Honorary Bencher of Gray's Inn (from