Vermont Business Magazine The White River Valley Chamber of Commerce has named John Baumann, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of DuBois & King, Business Executive of the Year for 2024. The Business Executive of the Year designation recognizes professional success and exemplary contributions to a business’s growth, vitality, financial health, success, and sustainability. Based in Randolph, the Chamber is made up of businesses and organizations in eleven communities in central Vermont. An award ceremony will be held in early spring 2025.
Baumann’s relationship with DuBois & King—a multidisciplinary consulting engineering firm headquartered in Randolph—goes back 43 years when he worked at the company part-time during high school. Following graduation from Norwich University in 1989 with Bachelors of Science in economics and business administration, Baumann joined D&K full time as a staff accountant. Within five years, he was promoted to controller, at that time, the senior-most financial position in the company.
In 2005, following significant investment in DuBois & King, Baumann was elected to the Board of Directors, and in 2008, he was elevated to chief financial officer of DuBois & King, just in time for the arrival of the great recession. As a principal and as CFO, he played a key role in guiding the company through the recession, meeting commitments to the firm’s creditors while protecting jobs. Although many companies endured several rounds of layoffs as they fought to survive the recession, Baumann’s meticulous and strategic leadership—in concert with his fellow principals—ensured DuBois & King did not lay off a single employee during the financial downturn.
Baumann’s leadership has been instrumental in DuBois & King’s steady growth and success. In 2008, when Baumann and his partners assumed control of the company, the firm employed 64 people and operated in three offices in two states. Despite navigating the recession, followed up by many challenges resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, DuBois & King now has more than 160 staff around nine offices in four states and has increased its annual revenue by more than four hundred percent since 2008.
Baumann was elected as Vice Chair of the Board of Directors in 2016. Over the last two decades, Baumann has steadfastly focused on retiring DuBois & King’s debt burden while balancing the cash flow demands placed on a company bound to invest in sustainable growth and remain locally owned. His financial strategies and ethical leadership have fiscally strengthened the firm and positioned the company for its growth and success, leading the Chamber to select him for this year’s Business Executive of the Year honor.
A lifelong resident of Randolph, Baumann lives in Randolph with his wife, Barbara.
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