Douglas M. Baker Jr. ’81, was featured in the Harvard Business Review (HBR) and was ranked 98th on the publication’s list of “The World’s Best-Performing CEOs” in the November 2015 issue. Baker is chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Ecolab Inc., a Fortune 500 company that provides water, hygiene and energy technologies and services that provide and protect clean water, safe food, abundant energy and healthy environments.
According to the article, HBR’s ranking of CEOs is meant to be a measure of enduring success. “We track and analyze each CEO’s performance starting from day one of his or her tenure. Our goal is to create a list that gets beyond the most recent quarterly or even annual results and truly evaluates long-term performance.”
This year, HBR added a new component to the mix “a measurement of each company’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance,” according to the website.
Baker graduated from Holy Cross with a B.A. in English and currently serves on the College’s board of trustees. Baker began his career with Ecolab in 1989, and has held key roles in marketing, sales and management in both the U.S. and Europe. In July 2004, Baker was named president and chief executive officer and in May 2006, became chairman of the board. Before Ecolab, Baker spent seven years in brand management at Procter & Gamble.
In 2011, Baker led Ecolab’s merger with Nalco, an $8 billion transaction that nearly doubled the size of the company. In 2013, he strengthened Ecolab’s energy services business through the $2.3 billion acquisition of Champion Technologies.
In 2014, he was named “Responsible CEO of the Year” by Corporate Responsibility Magazine.
Ecolab Inc. has been No. 2 on the Barron’s 500, No. 6 on Newsweek’s “World’s Greenest Companies,” and No. 7 in “Corporate Responsibility’s” Russell 1000 companies. For four consecutive years, the company has ranked on Forbes’ “World’s Most Innovative Companies” in addition to being named to Fortune’s “World’s Most Admired Companies.”
More information
- See the full list of “The Best-Performing CEOs in the World”
This "Holy Cross in the news" item is by Emma Collins '16.
