Former Ecolab Inc. CEO Doug Baker, who retired from the role on Jan. 1, stepped down as one of the Twin Cities' best known chief executives. He's been an active participant in Minnesota public life, from helping to bring Super Bowl XXVI to the state to leading fundraising efforts for a Catholic Charities homeless shelter in St. Paul.
And he's led Ecolab to form ties with the startup community. Ecolab's former headquarters in downtown St. Paul is now the Osborn370 building, home to two accelerators and multiple startups. Ecolab also partners with Techstars on its Farm to Fork Accelerator and Baker has been an angel investor for the past decade.
In a lengthy exit interview with the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal, Baker indicated he wants to become even more involved with startups post-Ecolab. Excerpted here are Baker's thoughts on why he's interested in working with growth-stage companies going forward and the success of the Osborn370 project.
Read excerpts of the discussion below:
Baker on working with startups:
I have no desire to be CEO of a public company again. I’ve done that for 16 and a half years. I don't think there's any better company to run than Ecolab, so I certainly wouldn't leave that one for another one. That's not the plan. However, I'm going to still be involved in business. Do I run something directly? I'm not going to say no, but that's not a key part of the plan. If that's important for me to realize a vision, I'll do it.
I want to work in more venture startup areas. I want to do some work in some of the communities that honestly need more capital and some bets made on them.
I will do that in some of the underserved communities historically. I [also] want to work in some of the environmental-technology areas. But it will be clear they will never be competitive against Ecolab.
On his investing philosophy:
I'm not really interested in joining somebody else's private equity group. It’ll be more on my own, or in a group that I form with other folks who might be partners.
I’ve been an angel investor and a little startup investor over the past 10 years in maybe 10 or 12 companies in the community, very quietly. But that is totally my money. I'd rather do both my money and get involved in an appropriate way with management, where I can make a difference.
On Osborn 370 and St. Paul:
I'm quite optimistic about St. Paul. I like our mayor. I think [Melvin Carter]’s doing a good job in a tough situation. I don't agree with everything he does, but in total, I really think he's on the right track and working to do the right things. He's engaged. He listens. He doesn't think like everybody else. So all that is positive.
Osborn370 has been an overwhelming success, and having us stay downtown is beneficial to downtown, obviously. It's very hard to discern momentum in any of these situations with Covid. What you have to do in downtown is sort of work through Covid and evaluate a year or 18 months from now and see what's happening down there.
We've added several companies, even during these times. The incubator project that we've sponsored has drawn several companies to move to the Twin Cities. In addition, they've housed themselves in the 370.
You can talk about these concepts and these strategies, but what you need to do is actually do something about it. That's what we've worked to do is be part of tangible actions that are going to drive virtuous results. It’s how I think about business. A strategy is one thing, it's important. But then you've got to have the ability to figure out what the catalysts are to drive the change, and make the strategy realized.
I'm a bull on downtown St. Paul. I think it's got a lot of charm. I think we're doing a good job enhancing it.
