Ross Baird ‘03 Discusses Life Beyond Exeter

Founder and CEO of Village Capital Ross Baird ‘03 shared his insight into the business world and reflected on his experience at Exeter during assembly on Friday, Oct. 6.

Baird opened his remarks with memories from Exeter, from his friendship with Mark Zuckerberg (who would go on to become the CEO of Facebook) to his first opening assembly, during which the Principal read aloud the Deed of Gift by John Phillips, as is tradition. While recounting various anecdotes, Baird emphasized that the phrase “goodness without knowledge is weak and feeble, yet knowledge without goodness is dangerous” has stuck with him throughout his life after Exeter.

During his time at Exeter, Baird noticed that students either pursued “knowledge,” through studying finance and entering Wall Street, or “goodness,” through working for the government, a non-governmental organization or becoming a teacher. As an entrepreneur, Baird explained that he wanted to intertwine goodness with the work he does, which led him to create a firm that invests in entrepreneurs solving global problems.

Along with promoting this notion of goodness, Baird hoped to inspire Exonians to pursue their interests to have the impact they want in their community. “I wanted to give Exonians the advice to pursue what they are passionate about, and start to be the change they want to see in the world today, rather than feel like they need to pursue a career, make a bunch of money, and then start doing good things,” he said. While he saw many of his own friends defer their true passions to pursue money or prestige, Baird followed a different path and hoped to show that it is possible pursue a career rooted in both knowledge and goodness.

Baird’s speech left lasting impressions on students and faculty who resonated with his core message.

Senior Tim Han believed that Friday’s assembly was a breath of fresh air for the business club, for which he is a cohead, and for the campus. “Mr. Baird offered a lot of insight on the necessity of both knowledge and goodness and how seeking both, even in business, can promote a 

lot of good and success in the world. It was also very cool to take away how the practices and methods of thinking that we are learning right now in our classrooms can translate to real world scenarios and have great career and life applications,” he said.

Senior Marie Leighton McCall agreed, noting that it was a great chance for students to listen to the connections students can make between their time at Exeter and their future careers. “I so enjoyed the opportunity to hear from someone, not too far removed from his time at Exeter, who is able to speak to the way he uses what he learned at Exeter in his professional life.  It was wonderful to hear an example of not having to choose between goodness and success,” she said.

Religion Instructor Kathleen Brownback, who Baird had contacted about his interest in speaking at assembly, enjoyed his talk. “I knew and liked Ross Baird when he was a student. I immediately knew, when he wrote to ask about assembly, that he would be a good speaker,” Kathleen Brownback said. “He is right at the intersection of important questions for students here.”

In his speech, Baird also spoke about the current diversity problems in the venture capital world, which Brownback believed that the students should be aware of. According to him, women make up only 5 percent of those employed by venture capital firms and people of color around 1 percent. Consequently, 90 percent of funding goes to white males, 5 percent to women entrepreneurs and very little to people of color. According to Brownback, Baird showed students that, “Business doesn’t exist in some independent universe. So the more business takes responsibility for its negative effects as well as the positive, the better it is for society.”

After assembly, students had the opportunity to join Baird with discussions and a Q&A session during lunch. Upper Elizabeth Yang, who was amazed by Baird’s engaging speech, went to the lunch afterwards to listen more about his experience and expertise. “During the lunch, I learned about the subtleties of business successes and failures, that are not as fantastical as people may believe. Mr. Baird pointed out simple things like how unpaid internships create an exclusive group of employees from a privileged population,” she said.

During his lunch discussion, Baird developed the idea that society has a concentration issue where talent circles around financial incentive instead of altruistic goals. “Paducah (KY) needs mayors. Paducah needs leaders. Exonians used to go out and fill those roles,” Baird said.

Responding to that sentiment, Han said, “I loved that line and I loved that challenge for each and every one of us to seek to fill some corner of this world with goodness and knowledge by applying the skills we learn here, instead of crowding around some financially rewarding locations and careers.”

Senior Peter O’Keefe was left with a lasting impression of Baird’s speech and subsequent discussion. “He is a walking, talking example of how rewarding and effective pursuing both goodness and knowledge can be.”