On the morning of September 11, 2001, Jeff Immelt was on a Stairmaster in Seattle, preparing for a town hall on just his second day as CEO of General Electric. He looked up at the television and watched the second plane strike the World Trade Center.
That single moment — a new chief executive, barely settled into the job, watching the world change on a gym screen — captures something about leadership that no business school case study fully prepares you for. Twenty-five years later, it remains one of the most human windows into how that day reshaped corporate America.
A Second Day on the Job, and a Crisis No One Rehearsed For
Immelt's story, shared in Fortune's CEO Daily, is a reminder that crisis rarely waits for a convenient moment. He had inherited GE from Jack Welch — one of the most celebrated CEOs in American history — and was expected to carry that legacy forward. Instead, his first real test arrived before he had even unpacked his office.
His old boss, Welch, was among the voices he would turn to in the days that followed. The transition from one era of leadership to another, already delicate, was suddenly happening against the backdrop of a national emergency.
Why the Business World Still Studies That Week
The September 11 attacks didn't just devastate families and communities — they disrupted markets, grounded flights, and forced companies to confront risks they had never modeled. For leaders in finance, aviation, insurance, and media, the days after the attacks became a crash course in decision-making under uncertainty.
Some of those decisions were about survival. Others were about values — how to support employees, how to communicate honestly, and how to keep an organization steady when the ground itself felt unstable.
How the Day Unfolded for Corporate America
The attacks struck Lower Manhattan, home to thousands of financial services employees. Trading halted. Offices emptied. Communication networks strained under the weight of a moment no contingency plan had anticipated.
In the weeks that followed, leaders across industries were forced to answer questions that had no playbook: When do you reopen? How do you reassure a workforce that has just watched colleagues die? What does "business as usual" even mean anymore?
The Leaders It Made — and the Ones It Took
Fortune's framing is deliberately stark. Some leaders emerged from that period with their reputations strengthened — tested, steady, and trusted. Others, whether because of circumstance, missteps, or simply the impossible weight of the moment, saw their trajectories altered in ways they could not control.
And then there were the leaders the day simply took — executives, managers, and professionals who went to work that morning and never came home. Their absence reshaped companies and families alike, a quieter and more permanent kind of loss.
What Fortune's Reflection Says About Leadership Itself
The CEO Daily note doesn't offer tidy lessons. It offers a mirror. Leadership, in moments like September 11, is less about strategy decks and more about presence — the willingness to stand in front of people when there are no good answers.
Immelt's story endures not because he had a plan that morning, but because he had to find one in real time, in public, with the world watching.
Confirmed Facts vs What Remains Unclear
Confirmed: Today is the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks. Jeff Immelt was on his second day as GE CEO when he saw the second plane hit. Fortune's CEO Daily published a reflection on the leaders the day made and took.
Unclear or unstated: The newsletter excerpt does not detail specific decisions Immelt made in the immediate aftermath, nor does it name the leaders referenced in the "taken" portion of the headline. Those details would require the full newsletter or additional reporting.
Risks and Balanced View
Anniversary reflections risk becoming sentimental shorthand for complex realities. Not every leader who struggled after 9/11 failed — and not every leader who appeared steady was unaffected. The business world's response to that day was uneven, sometimes admirable, sometimes flawed.
It's also worth remembering that the most important stories from September 11 are not about executives at all. They are about the thousands of ordinary people — first responders, office workers, passengers — whose lives were ended or forever changed.
A Wider Pattern: How Crisis Defines Careers
Immelt's experience is part of a broader pattern. From the 2008 financial crisis to the COVID-19 pandemic, leaders have repeatedly found themselves defined by events they did not choose. The question is never whether a crisis will come — only whether a leader is ready to be seen clearly when it does.
Practical Reader Guidance
For anyone in a leadership role today, the takeaway isn't to prepare for a specific disaster. It's to build the habits — honesty, presence, decisiveness — that hold up when the unexpected arrives. And for the rest of us, the anniversary is a moment to remember the human cost behind the corporate headlines.
Future Outlook
As the 25th anniversary passes, expect more reflections from business leaders, historians, and journalists about how 9/11 changed corporate culture, security, and crisis planning. The stories of those who led — and those who were lost — will continue to be told, and retold, for generations.
Our Take
Fortune's framing — the leaders 9/11 made, and the ones it took — is a reminder that leadership is not a title but a test. Some pass it. Some don't. And some never get the chance. Twenty-five years on, that remains the most honest thing anyone can say about what that morning did to the people who ran America's companies.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who was the GE CEO on September 11, 2001?
Jeff Immelt was CEO of General Electric. September 11, 2001, was his second day in the role, having succeeded Jack Welch.
What did Jeff Immelt see on the morning of 9/11?
According to Fortune's CEO Daily, Immelt was on a Stairmaster in Seattle when he looked up and saw the second plane hit the World Trade Center.
What does "the leaders 9/11 made—and the ones it took" mean?
It refers to leaders whose careers and reputations were shaped by how they responded to the crisis — and those who lost their lives that day, leaving voids in their companies and communities.
Why is the 25th anniversary of 9/11 significant for business leaders?
It marks a quarter-century since a single morning forced corporate America to rethink crisis management, employee safety, and what leadership under extreme uncertainty actually looks like.
