Last week students in the BHP Lyceum course had the opportunity to hear from Sean Bauld. Bauld describes himself as a transformation leader. His career has taken him to realms beyond what one might expect from a career in marketing research. However, transformation starts with information, and Bauld is an expert at manipulating information and using it to create profound strategy changes.
Bauld started his college career at UT as a computer science major. It was not a good fit, and he was invited by the University to leave it. He briefly pursued a career in marketing in Houston where he stumbled upon the value of empirical marketing research. Deciding he wanted to go back to college and earn a degree, Bauld gained readmission to UT after seven unsuccessful appeals. The eighth time was the charm, apparently. He quickly earned a business degree followed by an MBA from McCombs and a Masters in Public Affairs from the LBJ School.
While earning his masters degrees, he joined Intelliquest, a market research start-up as an intern. He became Intelliquest’s eighth employee after graduation. During his seven years there, the company grew quite a bit and went through an IPO right after he left. “Equity matters and it drives a significant portion of your compensation,” said Bauld. He also advised the students to negotiate for what they think they are worth and to always leave a company on good terms.
After Intelliquest, Bauld took a position with IBM as Director of Market Intelligence and Competitive Strategy. “The breakthroughs I had while in the position were driven by fundamentals of company and customer needs. You have to be able to hear what is really being said and see behind those observations,” he said. He spent six years at IBM and was then recruited by Thomson Reuters, where he spent another five years before going on to an emergency services start-up called New York City 24 7, before joining Avid Technology in 2010.
Leadership is a recurring theme of the class and Bauld shared a bit about his leadership philosophy. As a team leader, he looks to find the right positions to fit the skills of the people working for him, be transparent to his employees, and get to know and support them. “Think about what your aptitudes are and what you are interested in, and let your career follow from there,” he said. Good advice for BHP students who are just starting down their own path to be transformational leaders in their own right.
I liked the post. Wanted to clarify as several people sent me this note today. Sean Bauld is not the VP of Marketing for Avid Technology. Nor was he ever in that role. I am the current CMO of Avid and think that there must be some mistake on the post. Just wanted to reach out and make you aware of this. Thanks.