John D Backe

Vocation

Family

American Broadcasting executive and former President of CBS; he was also a UNESCO delegate. In 1976 he was President of CBS' publishing group when he was picked by CBS Chairman William Paley to become President of CBS. Backe was just 44 years old and was to take the place of Arthur Taylor whom Paley had just fired. Backe (pronounced "Back-ee") grew up in Akron,the son of an employee of B.F. Goodrich. After completing college and a stint in the Air Force, he joined General Electric. While there he earned a degree in business administration. He got his start in publishing in 1966 when he joined Silver Burdett, a textbook publisher and an arm of General Learning, owned in part by GE and Time, Inc. Three years later he was President of General Learning and five years after that, in 1973, he was head of CBS' publishing group. He is credited with a 35% increase in revenue in three years. He was considered tough and analytical, with a good business mind. Backe left CBS in 1981 and established his own business, The Backe Group, a management company specializing in media and technology companies. In 1972 he was asked to be a UNESCO representative in Cairo. He and his wife have two children.