Bob Wright's Next Move

In an exclusive sit-down with Fortune, the outgoing chairman of NBC Universal talks about the future of the network, his old boss Jack Welch, and his new quest: the fight to cure autism.

By Tim Arango

March 23, 2007

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So what was your response?

My wife, Suzanne, and I used our resources to start Autism Speaks two years ago. Since then we have merged with other autism groups: Cure Autism Now, the National Alliance for Autism Research and the Autism Coalition for Research and Education. I try to use all the tools that I have for business in this organization: cost control, marketing, raising money. We need the funds to do this. Managing it, we have very good finance people. We try to have the same disciplines that would exist in a business. Because this, by and large, is other people's money.

I basically narrowed my outside activities over the past two years to Autism Speaks. I certainly will do more. The next two years are very important for me on this, because we now have created a very big organization. The challenge is to pull it all together and become more dynamic—to provide family services, awareness, research and therapies.

Birth of a foundation

Behind every great CEO is a supportive partner. And for Bob Wright at NBC, that person was Suzanne Wright, who, with her collection of peacock brooches, was closely associated with the network. But she's even more hands-on in the fight against autism.

The Wrights have tapped into a network of corporate chieftains who have been supportive of their two-year-old foundation. Among them are Mel Karmazin, the CEO of Sirius Satellite Radio, who also has a grandson with autism; fashion mogul Ralph Lauren; and Phil Geier, former chairman of advertising giant Interpublic. Here are excerpts of Suzanne Wright's conversation with Tim Arango.

Your grandson was 2 years old when he was diagnosed with autism in 2004. What was that like?

I had known all along that something was going very wrong with Christian. We had moved our daughter, Katie, and her family to New Canaan, Conn. And once he was in his new house, he would go under tables and he would bite and scream, and I said, "There's something very wrong here." But five different doctors told me that he was acting this way because of the move. I said, "I've raised three children, and I've moved them too, and I've never seen behavior like this." The tests at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital took three days. And it was heartbreaking to sit there in the room with the team of doctors who evaluated Christian. The worst words were "He has autism." I didn't even know what it was. I thought of Rain Man.

You were lucky enough to have the resources to start a foundation and get the best possible care for your grandson. What typically happens with families that are less well-off?

I could not believe how devastating it can be for some other families. They have to take second and third mortgages to cover the care and schooling. I said, "Oh, my God, we have to do something."

Soon friends of ours started giving me big checks and saying, "I don't want anyone to know." Because they are hoping that the child they know with autism will someday recover, and that by recovering they won't be known as autistic. Because there is a stigma, much as there once was a stigma with AIDS.

For more information, go to www.autismspeaks.org

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