Governor Snyder's Talent Guru Transformation Manager (Rich Baird)

Snyder’s talent guru steps out from behind the curtain

TOM WALSH TALKS WITH RICH BAIRD ON ROLE IN INNER CIRCLE

   Who is Rich Baird, and what is his role in Gov. Rick Snyder’s inner circle?

   To some, Baird is the consummate talent scout and recruiter who enticed Utah budget director John Nixon to leave a swell job and a dream house in Bountiful to take on a $1.5-billion budget hole in Michigan — and then scoured the nation two years later to help Snyder land Kevyn Orr as the emergency manager for Detroit.

   To others, Baird, 56, is a mystery figure, a Snyder adviser who’s not on the state payroll but is called “transformation manager” on the governor’s organizational chart.

   Recently, to his own chagrin, Baird’s name bubbled up in news stories about private “skunk works” meetings where Lansing officials were batting around ideas for less-expensive, technology-based public schools — which irked people who had been excluded.

   Until I met him for the first time in person this week, what little I knew of Baird was that he was a longtime trusted associate of Snyder, a low-profile operator who had assembled the governor’s team of top appointees — Nixon, chief of staff Dennis Muchmore, legislative liaison Dick Posthumus, Treasurer Andy Dillon.

   He clearly prefers operating behind the scenes.

   “There’s a difference between secret and private. There’s a reason why the sausage makers don’t have you look at the sausage being made,” he said.

   While insisting that nothing was amiss with the private education-related meetings, Baird is clearly protective of Snyder and doesn’t want the governor’s education initiatives sidetracked by controversy about secret meetings. By sitting down now with a few journalists, I expect Baird to try to shed any air of mystery about his activities.

   A Michigan native who grew up in Flint and Grand Blanc and attended Albion College, Baird spent most of his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers, rising to become a global partner leading the firm’s human relations and change management efforts. Baird had a hand in hiring Rick Snyder in 1982 at what was then Coopers & Lybrand. The two have been close ever since.

   When Snyder was running for election in 2010 as a political candidate and heard Baird was about to retire from PwC, he asked Baird to come help build a team.

   Baird relished the task. Like a fisherman retelling the story of a great catch, he lit up when talking about the courtship of Nixon, then a 38-year-old star on the rise as president of the National Association of State Budget Officers.

   Baird knew finding the right budget chief would be critical. Not only was there a gaping deficit to close in Michigan, but the new director would have to deal with a demanding CPA governor in Snyder.

   When he got Nixon to come to Michigan for a chat and found out Nixon’s wife DeAnn had attended the Interlochen Arts Academy near Traverse City in high school, Baird knew he had a shot. “And the coup,” he said, “was when I asked Scott Romney (brother of Mitt) if he would take the Nixons to the Mormon church in East Lansing. Scott Romney not only took them to church on Sunday, but to the football game on Saturday.”

   Baird said he is paid $100,000 a year from a 401(c) (4) nonprofit fund by Snyder.

   Baird initially agreed to a one-year stay, but over dinner last December at Troppo restaurant in Lansing, Snyder asked him to stick around.

Rich Baird