Corporations: New Boss for Comsat

In his two years as chairman and chief executive of the fledgling Communications Satellite Corp., Leo D Welch, 67, supervised two notable accomplishments. On the ground he launched a $200 million stock issue that was snapped up by communications companies and 190,000 space-minded investors; into the air he launched the Early Bird satellite, now relaying sound and pictures from a perch 22,300 miles over the equator. Welch, who had earlier retired as Jersey Standard’s chair man, was bothered by a kidney ailment He pressed for a younger successor and last week he had his wish. Taking over the $125,000 job: courtly, cerebral James McCormack, 54, a retired major general with degrees from Oxford (where he was a Rhodes scholar studying modern languages) and from West Point and M.I.T. (both in engineering) who is now an M.I.T. vice president and an overseer of its two largest Government-research laboratories.

Louisiana-born, Irish Baptist McCormack will need his charm and know-how at Comsat. The corporation is busy with plans to link its communications system with an Apollo satellite to be orbited next year by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and to offer Pacific communication similar to Early Bird’s European hookup. After that will come a new generation of Comsat satellites that will provide worldwide links with stations in at least 45 countries. On the ground, Comsat is embroiled in arguments. Television networks are unhappy about Comsat’s high rates ($5,245 an hour in prime time). Such companies as A.T.&T. and I.T.T., both customers and part owners of Comsat, want to run its ground stations, and users want to link with Comsat ground stations directly instead of dealing with any middleman.

McCormack is only mildly concerned by such disputes. He is more interested Comsat’s pioneering effort and its potential as a Government-chartered space company. Says he: “This firm is the base for a genuine social and economic revolution around the world. The business of management is sort of standard. Here, you get the opportunity to cut the cloth out of which the suit will be made, and that’s always fascinating.”

At Comsat, McCormack may, if any thing, slacken his pace. Although he was forced out of a promising Air Force career at 45 by heart trouble he has lately been working a 100-hour week at M.I.T. and as chairman of Boston’s Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. He also sits on six company boards, intends to relinquish all of these seats to avoid conflicts of interest. So anxious is he to get into space that last week he had no sooner finished a speaking engagement in Los Angeles than he jetted to Washington overnight to attend his first Comsat board meeting—still attired in his dinner jacket.