If there’s one thing Jim Bauman appreciates about the breadth of his 30-year career at 3M, it’s the opportunity it’s given him to see the forest and the trees. He has spent more than a decade in manufacturing, been the general manager of two divisions and lived and worked in Asia, running the company’s offices in Thailand and the Asia Pacific region.
“What you learn from a career like that is the full context of what you can do to make the whole company better,” Jim says. “3M has outstanding values, and we as a company really try to encourage people to do their best and then give them opportunities to develop. You rarely hear ‘no’ if you really believe in something.”
Jim began at 3M as an engineer in 1982. He went on to work in the company’s Magnetic Audio Video Division, and moved from his native Midwest to Oklahoma. A few years later, Jim became managing director of 3M Thailand. He returned to the U.S. in 2001 to a position at 3M’s campus in Austin, Texas. A few more years in Minnesota, and then Jim was back in Asia, serving first as general manager in Hong Kong and going on to oversee the Asia Pacific region.
Jim came back to Minnesota in 2015 to serve as senior vice president of Business Transformation, Americas. It’s a key initiative at 3M that aims to better serve customers, increase productivity and improve efficiency. The greatest compliment he’s ever received, he says, is that his passion for his work is evident because he puts so much of himself into it.
That might be because a science-based company like 3M is exciting to Jim, who laughs as he refers to himself as a “closet roboticist.” Besides a fascination with robotics, Jim’s other hobbies include running. He’s also spent a significant amount of time engaged with nonprofits, including St. Paul Youth Services and the Austin United Way Young Leaders Society.