2022 Baird Annual Report Resilience
Corporate Resource Groups
Our five core businesses at Baird are supported by our best-in-class Corporate Resources Groups (CRGs), which provide the framework that allows us to offer the highest level of service to our clients. The past year saw them working diligently on special projects as well as driving even greater efficiencies for our business units.
Our CRGs’ primary contribution is to make our services more effective for our clients. In 2022, our Finance team implemented a new technology platform to provide enhanced reporting to our Financial Advisors as well as a complex data project that provides new insights to the Global Investment Banking business. Across our businesses, the Information Technology team has been making focused investments in core customer relationship management (CRM) and data & analytics platforms in order to better focus our efforts, inform our decision-making and serve our clients.
Our Marketing & Communications group launched a significant upgrade to our Financial Advisors’ social media capabilities that provides them with new, more comprehensive ways to communicate with their clients.
In the face of ever-evolving business, market, and cyber risks, Risk Management invested in data analytics, tools, and diverse talent to provide stronger insights to the team’s partners across Baird.
Our Human Resources team kept its focus on maintaining Baird’s standing as a great place to work for our associates, through such factors as keeping the cost of our medical plan below industry trends and allowing associates to share in the firm’s success through our Total Rewards program. And after some years lost to COVID, Compliance brought back its Annual Baird Compliance Roundtable to an in-person format, hosting nearly 100 individuals from 25 firms across the industry to share ideas and approaches for navigating the financial services industry’s regulatory landscape.
Perhaps the most prominent development our CRGs were involved with in 2022 was Baird’s merger with the wealth management firm Hefren-Tillotson. The Legal team stepped up first, working on the due diligence involved in the merger, then coordinating with others across the firm to structure and negotiate the transaction.
Our Corporate Real Estate and Workplace Solutions team (CREW) was also heavily involved in integrating the firm’s six locations across the greater Pittsburgh area, totaling more than 100,000 square feet of office space. Our Operations team was instrumental in seamlessly converting its 22,000 households and 55,000 accounts onto Baird’s platform. And throughout the entire process, the Strategic Change Office provided overall project management support, partnering closely with all teams involved, to keep the integration on track.
This June also saw our Come Together celebration, bringing Baird associates from around the world to our headquarters to see many of their fellow employee-owners for the first time since the pandemic struck. This gathering was coordinated by our Corporate Events team for nearly 7,000 Baird associates and their guests on the Milwaukee lakefront. The Culture team made sure we were all connected across the globe, celebrating our associates and their guests with “behind the scenes” Baird walking tours, a putting contest for charities, a Baird Times Square showcasing our culture through the years, and a personal welcome for our new shareholders.
Related Links
For a downloadable version of the 2022 Baird Annual Report, click below.