[2006 Leadership Profiles] Greg Baumann

Greg Baumann has an affection for confection, so it’s appropriate he grew up in Palmyra, Pa., a stone’s throw from the center of the candy universe – Hershey, Pa. However, from an early age Baumann vowed never to work for the area’s largest employer, not because he didn’t admire the company, but because he wanted to see the world. "I grew up in a company town, so I was very familiar with the food industry. It was all around me," he says. "The main Hershey chocolate plant had 7,500 employees. Forty truckloads of raw milk went into that plant every day! And that was just one ingredient for some products."

Growing up, it seemed like everyone in town had some affiliation with Hershey, creating a strong sense of community, but also a parochial view of life. "When you graduated from high school in that part of Pennsylvania you had three choices. You could join the military, go off to college or work for Hershey," he says. Baumann chose school, majoring in marine biology at Penn State University, but being away from home proved problematic for the shy, academically oriented teenager with some challenges at home.

The first in his family to attend college, Baumann says he was "totally befuddled" his freshman year. "I thought I was going to be the next Jacques Cousteau. I was going to save the whales," he says with a laugh. Then a chemistry professor invited him to a lab and he became instantly enamored with the field and transferred to the University of Delaware. "Thanks to the DuPont family, the University of Delaware is the Harvard of chemistry, so I knew I was going to get a good education, but I was more interested in the process of learning than the piece of paper you earn at the end," he recalls. "The degree was not my final objective; the education was what was most important to me."

But earning that education proved easier said than done. Money was tight and the Baumann family was still reeling from the death of Greg’s mother, Jean, two years earlier. Her death was particularly difficult on Baumann’s father, George, who worked as a draftsman for an engineering firm, and his 10-year-old sister, Joan. "The death of my mother was very hard on my dad," he says. "You have to remember that this was the 1970s when men and women had well defined roles. Now he’s expected to be a father and mother of a 10-year old girl who is on the cusp of being a teenager, dealing with clothes, boyfriends, peer pressure and other issues. I can’t imagine what he went through. He shut down for a period of time; tried to blank some things out, but I appreciate how hard he tried to be there for my sister and me. He gave it his best, even though it was very difficult," Baumann says. "That’s why I think my sister and I are so close to this day. Our mother’s death brought us together. We were like army buddies," he adds. "You get thrown into a foxhole together and deal with it. You don’t know if you’re going to survive, but you’re going to do your best to protect one another in hopes of surviving."

So Baumann, as he has done so many times in his life, took matters into his own hands, commuting back and forth to Pennsylvania to care for his still grieving family, while working several low-paying jobs to fund his higher education. "I grew up in a blue-collar area of Pennsylvania, so going to college was not an option for most people," he says. "They simply couldn’t afford it. While my father was supportive of my education, he couldn’t pay for my schooling, nor did I feel entitled. I always knew it would be up to me to pay for my own college expenses."

So Baumann rolled up his sleeves and got to work. He was on track to earn his chemistry degree, "but I knew I was going to run out of money, so I left school and headed back home with just a year to go," he says, returning to his Pennsylvania roots in hopes of earning enough money to one day return to the University of Delaware.

Upon returning home, Baumann secured a position at Y&S Candies, a family-owned business based in Brooklyn, N.Y., that was moving its operations to Lancaster, Pa. But as fate would have it, six months after the move, Y&S Candies was purchased by – you guessed it – The Hershey Foods Corporation. "So despite my desire to leave the area I ended up working for Hershey, 20 miles from where I was born, something I thought I would never do," Baumann says. "But that experience taught me an important life lesson, and that is never burn any bridges or plan too far ahead because you never know what’s going to happen down the road."

It’s a lesson that would serve him well years later when he decided to leave the National Pest Management Association (NPMA) on good terms as director of technical and field services, only to return a few years later at the urging of NPMA leadership. In fact, it was while working in a quality assurance capacity at The Hershey Co. that Baumann was first introduced to the pest management industry. "We were one of first companies to get involved in HACCP, and pest management is an important part of any HACCP program," he observes. "So my first introduction to the pest management industry was not as a technician, but as a customer, and later in-house pest management advisor for all plants, 849 restaurants, and visitor centers."

Baumann’s tireless work ethic and strong interpersonal skills allowed him to rise through the ranks quickly at Hershey, managing the company’s research operations at plants in Lancaster, Pa., and later in quality assurance in Montreal, Quebec, as well as several other locations. "I learned a lot working for Hershey. It’s a great company and I still have friends there."

He also learned to appreciate the value of working for a company that truly cares about its employees. Hershey has long been a proponent of continuing education, so Baumann returned to school thanks to the company’s financial support, attending Millersville State University, where he earned a degree in chemistry while working full-time, celebrating with his wife, Sharon Potteiger, who he had married in 1977. "We were friends all through high school, but we didn’t date," he recalls. "We started dating when I moved back to Hershey and I ran into her at church."

Three years later they welcomed a son named Tony. When his wife became pregnant again, this time with a girl, their family was nearly complete, but his daughter died three days after being born. It would not be the last time unexpected tragedy would shatter Baumann’s world.

Two years later, while at work one day, a Hershey’s colleague interrupted a meeting Baumann was attending and said, "You’ve got a phone call that’s really important." Greg wasn’t sure what it could be about, but it turned out to be his brother-in-law. He said, "Come home right away, Sharon just died." She had suffered a pulmonary embolism and their four-year-old son, Tony, had called 911.

In less than a decade, Greg Baumann’s life had gone full circle. "I ended up being a single parent, just like my dad, but in my case I was given the responsibility of raising a four-year-old boy, not a 10-year-old daughter," he says. So, just as he had done 15 years before, Baumann pulled his life together once again and became his family’s primary caregiver, putting his personal life on hold to care for a young son, a son who remains close to his father to this day, working less than 10 miles away at North Carolina State University.

Baumann says the loss of his wife at such a young age changed him forever. "You’re never the same," he says. "It makes you see the big picture, but not always act on the big picture. I mean, how do you open up to someone else when you’ve suffered such a loss? You don’t want to be hurt again, so I focused on my son, becoming very protective of him. I just tried to get through my life one day at a time."

While the loss of his wife and the mother of his child were personally devastating, Baumann was touched by the "incredible support" he received from his friends and colleagues at The Hershey Co. "It took me a couple of weeks, but I eventually returned to work and the travel schedule, visiting facilities in the U.S., Canada, and Europe. Fortunately, Tony doesn’t remember much of those days. My goal was to make his life as normal as possible," he says. And Baumann has done just that, mirroring his commitment to his sister Joan a decade before. "We leaned on each other for survival."

After being touched by tragedy a third time in his life, Baumann avoided entering into another relationship for a number of years, choosing instead to concentrate on raising his young son and building his career. After Baumann had healed sufficiently, he met Jill Fanelli while attending a food safety conference in Baltimore. "She was a regulatory official from the state of Virginia who was giving a presentation in Baltimore and I was in the audience," he recalls. "She said one of the highlights of her year was going to a Hershey plant in Virginia and touring the facility because she was a ‘chocoholic.’ I liked her instantly. Right after the presentation I handed her a bag of Hershey’s Kisses. We walked the Inner Harbor of Baltimore and I told her, ‘Even if you don’t have a good time, at least you’ll have something to hold you over on the way home.’"

With Jill in Richmond, Va., and Baumann still in Hershey, a long-distance relationship ensued. "I was fortunate to find someone like Jill when I wasn’t looking," he says, "but I was still reticent to get too involved in a relationship. When I got to know Jill, I said, ‘You don’t want to get involved with me. If you do, it’s bad luck, because bad things happen to the people I love," but she was persistent, saying she was willing to take her chances. He also decided it was time for a career change. "It was a hard decision to leave Hershey, but it was the right thing to do. I needed to start a new chapter in my life." Baumann went to work for Clark Candy Company, a division of Leaf. It too was ultimately bought by Hershey, another lesson on the importance of maintaining good relationships. At Clark, he handled research and quality assurance including directing insect management research and packaging penetration studies that have benefitted the food-processing industry.

Despite his many professional accomplishments it’s his family that has provided Baumann with his greatest personal satisfaction. "Jill is the most incredible woman that I know. She is strong, smart, and very caring. Tony looks to her today for help and advice. She hung in there despite my initial reservations," he says. "She saw a great relationship between us and I am so fortunate that she did. It was a pre-fab family and she rose to the challenge."

Greg Baumann and Jill Fanelli married in 1988 and the union has produced two more sons, Drew, 17, and Reid, 14, making the "second act" of Baumann’s life something truly special.

The NPMA Years

Greg Baumann was first introduced to the pest management industry while working on a HAACP program for The Hershey Company. Later, he worked for an insurance company, underwriting the pest control industry, where he spent most of his time in the field with pest control companies. To this day, he prides himself on how he can work with senior level people one day and technicians the next, a lesson taught by his good friend and mentor in the food industry, Dr. Bill Cook. As a staffer at the insurance company he contributed his time and talent to the association’s Legislative Day activities, which ultimately landed him an offer from Bob Rosenberg of NPMA. He joined the association in 1991 as manager of government affairs, eventually moving on to the association’s Technical Department working for Dr. Richard Kramer, a member of the Leadership Class of 2002. "You couldn’t go wrong working for Dr. Kramer," he says. "He taught me a great deal."

Baumann served as NPMA technical manager from 1993 to 1996, and when Dr. Kramer left the organization to launch a consulting business, he assumed the position of director of technical and field services, a position he held from 1996 to 2001.

After observing PCOs in his role as NPMA technical manager, Baumann was bitten by the entrepreneurial bug, launching Pro-Tech Pest Management, a home inspection and termite business, with several partners in North Carolina after resigning from the association. "We did well over 1,000 inspections the first year," he says. With success, however, came a desire for rapid expansion, a prospect that wasn’t the right direction for Baumann. "I’m not a gambler," he said. "I didn’t want to jeopardize my lifestyle," so he exited the business.

Just as he was deciding what to do next, he got a call from NPMA Executive Vice President Rob Lederer, who offered him his old job back as director of technical & field services. "I was very happy when Greg rejoined the NPMA," observes longtime friend and colleague Dr. Pat Zungoli of Clemson University. "He’s made a huge contribution to the industry. He’s a wonderful man. I’ve enjoyed every minute of my association with him."