Management: GE Provides a Peacock?

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When he announced last January that he planned to depart at 60, NBC Chairman Grant Tinker asked that his successor be chosen from among the ranks of the network's current management. Last week it appeared that Tinker's wish would not be granted. Word began leaking that General Electric Chairman John Welch, whose desires became paramount at NBC after his electronics giant bought RCA, NBC's parent company, for $6.28 billion last December, had settled on his own man for the job. This week Welch is expected to name Robert Wright, 43, the president of GE Financial Services, to become NBC's new chairman in the fall. Privately, NBC officials confirmed the news. |

Wright's sole television experience is the three years he spent as president of Cox Cable Communications starting in 1980. A lawyer by training, Wright began working for GE in 1969. He has been a close Welch ally since 1973, when he joined the GE plastics group that Welch then headed. Wright is said to have been a major behind-the-scenes force in organizing the merger of GE and RCA. His background suggests a distinct change from the relaxed management style and well-established Hollywood connections of Tinker, who moved the network from the ratings basement to No. 1 during his five-year reign.