Thriving entrepreneur Scott Baxter weighs in
NEW YORK, Jan. 29, 2009 — In today’s doomsday economy, few CEOs can boast of creating jobs and increasing profits. Scott Baxter, the recession-busting founder of SA Baxter (http://www.sabaxter.com), a high-end manufacturer of architectural hardware, had the most successful business quarter ever and is thriving both domestically and internationally. He successfully launched his third venture by combining a passion for design with an impressive track record in media, telecommunications, and information technology.
Baxter exemplifies the business formula that is needed to reboot the American economy and speaks from experience on driving entrepreneurship and renewing the U.S. manufacturing base.
While the rest of the luxury market is spiraling downward, with record numbers of companies downsizing and declaring bankruptcy, SA Baxter is fielding orders from the U.S. and around the world, including China, Russia, India, Turkey, UK, Germany, Canada, South America, and the Middle East. Baxter could well represent a blueprint for starting a new company in the worst economic climate since the Depression.
As the debate over the Obama administration’s $800 billion stimulus plan to revive the moribund economy heats up, Scott Baxter brings a unique perspective to the debate. Unlike academics and heads of financial institutions so often featured in the news, over the past 15 years, Baxter has actually created hundreds of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars in the small-business sector.
Baxter added, “The stimulus package could be disastrous for the nation’s small businesses - the backbone of the U.S. economy. With credit markets now frozen, most entrepreneurs can’t get their business off the ground.” Baxter notes that without any part of Obama’s stimulus package targeting the small-business sector - which employs roughly 60% of the nation’s work force - entrepreneurship in the U.S. will suffer. In light of the growing competition in global markets, this could be lethal.
He believes the government programs set hurdles that make it impossible for new businesses without his financial resources, including the program he participates in through the New York Empire Development Corp. He fears that the entire program will cost him more than the benefits he is deriving due to additional bureaucracy and pending changes proposed by the current Governor. With an SBA loan wholly out of the question, Baxter personally financed his architectural hardware firm, SA Baxter, where all production is done domestically in an eco-friendly state-of-the-art foundry in the New York Hudson Valley.
Understanding markets, branding, and the need for green manufacturing, Baxter’s application of advanced technology has placed him at the forefront of fusing the old-world economic business model into the new economy. His astute business acumen is clearly illustrated by his two-year-old architectural hardware company, which has quickly earned the reputation as among the best in the world. SA Baxter’s unique approach to design and manufacture is the reason its products are sought out by the world’s top designers and architects.
In addition to his architectural business, Scott Baxter runs Baxter Investments LLC, a strategic investment and consulting firm that he uses as his investment vehicle for his own ventures, public equity, corporate debt, advisory services to other individuals and entities, and most recently exploring the gold markets with perhaps yet another venture he thinks will change the fundamental efficiency of the market.
While Baxter started off in design school, he was among the early visionaries drawn to technology and acquired a B.S. in Information Management in 1980. After a short stint as a computer operator and engineer, he moved to the business side of technology, working in sales and marketing for Data General Corporation and Sun Microsystems. Baxter’s entrepreneurial path started in 1991 with ICON, which began as a local technology consultancy technology company. After only five years Baxter took ICON public and sold the company to Qwest Communications for about $500 million. Baxter later served as President of QIS, a division of Qwest Communications in 1998. He later co-founded and served as Chairman of Hawk Holdings, a technology incubator which launched Teoma Technologies, acquired by Ask.com in 2001 for approximately 10% of Ask stock trading at .82 cents a share and rose as high as $40 per share in the following months, giving it one of the best returns on any stock listed on the NASDAQ.
For more information, contact: Diane Blackman, (212) 989-3646, or Cindy Rakowitz, (818) 783-3307
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