NBC's First Lady

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She is a dynamo of an executive who made such a mark in a 20-year career at International Business Machines Corp. that Jimmy Carter considered appointing her his Commerce Secretary before she took herself out of the running. Last week Jane Cahill Pfeiffer, 45, found something more to her liking. NBC President and Chief Executive Fred Silverman named her the network's chairman, succeeding Old Pro Julian Goodman, 56, who moves to chairman of the executive committee.

Pfeiffer thus becomes one of the highest-ranking women in U.S. business. Still, while she will have a seat on the board of RCA, NBC's corporate parent, she will report to Silverman, the programming magician whom NBC hired away from ABC earlier this year to try to pull the network out of its last-place ratings slot. Silverman will run the network; Pfeiffer will use her extensive Government contacts on behalf of NBC and will be its spokesman in Washington at a crucial time--hearings begin next year on a sweeping proposal for deregulation of the communications industry that would, among other things, provide for indefinite terms for radio-and TV-station licenses. In time, Pfeiffer is expected to become involved in all aspects of NBC policymaking and administration.

NBC's new chairman got acquainted with Silverman years ago when she was an IBM vice president for communications and Government relations. She worked with Silverman, who was then at CBS, in handling IBM's debut as a television sponsor. "They complement each another," says M.S. Rukeyser Jr., an NBC executive vice president. "She's an expert in things like Government relations that he doesn't know very much about." An other intriguing question will be whether Pfeiffer's marriage will become a duet of corporate chiefs. Her husband, Ralph, 51, senior vice president and chief executive in charge of IBM's operations in the Far East and Latin America, is one of several high executives considered candidates to succeed Chairman Frank Cary some day. qed

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