Baird's CEO Purcell's Daily Routine as Told to the FT, If You Care

Robert W. Baird is based in Milwaukee, but CEO Paul Purcell, like his brother Phil who once ran Morgan Stanley in New York, commutes from his home in Chicago --- in a Chevrolet van "equipped with a desk, computer, fax, printer, TV, fridge and three phones." Here is his daily routine as told to the FT in its Business Diary column.

We wrote a story about the "plain-speaking" Purcell (as the FT calls him) and Baird back in 2007. In fact, Purcell is so "plain speaking" that we had to print a retraction, first ever in my journalism career, for his description of the circumstances of some Baird employees who left to form their own money management outfit.