Thomas T. Stallkamp

Directors & Boards, Spring, 2000 by Martin D. Porter

This veteran of 28 years in the automobile industry switches gears to take on a new CEO position and new board appointments.

DURING pleasure trips to Miami, Thomas T. Stallkamp, the former No. 2 executive at Daimler-Chrysler Corp., tears down the highway in one of his favorite cars -- a bright yellow 1950s-styled hotrod coupe. Aptly named the Prowler, the two-seat speedster has an engine that cranks 253 horsepower, a jutting tall end, and rides on nearly three-foot-wide rear tires. To witness a distinguished-looking gent like Stallkamp, at age 53, tooling around in such a fearsome-looking vehicle must certainly prompt several stares by passersby.

"Cars have always been a hobby of mine," Stallkamp tells DIRECTORS & BOARDS, "which is why I've stayed so long in the car business." He began his career at Ford Motor Co. in 1972, and eight years later joined Chrysler Corp., where he remained for 20 years, building over that time a strong reputation on Wall Street for his cost-cutting initiatives and supply-chain management expertise.

Nine months after the $40 billion merger of Daimler-Benz and Chrysler Corp., which was completed during the fall of 1998, Stallkamp left amid an executive shakeup. In January 2000 he became vice chairman and CEO of MSX International Corp., which provides engineering and specialized staffing services. Although Stallkamp is officially out of the car manufacturing business, he remains close to the industry through his work at MSX, whose biggest client is Ford. (MSX is also the company that, among its contract services, painted his Prowler -- the first yellow Prowler ever to hit the streets.) Since leaving Daimler-Chrysler, Stallkamp has also joined the board of PickupTruck.Com., a private company that operates an online community for pickup truck enthusiasts.

"I joined that board out of a curiosity to learn more about dot-coms and the e-commerce business," says Stallkamp. When asked if he owns a pickup, he answers with a laugh, "No. But I do own a sports utility vehicle."

In addition to his new career at MSX, Stallkamp is broadening his business experience through corporate board service. During the last months of his tenure at Daimler-Chrysler, Stallkamp joined the Kmart board, his first outside board. In February, he joined the board of Baxter International Inc., a global medical products company.

"I knew that I would be leaving Daimler-Chrysler at the end of '99," says Stallkamp, "so I thought joining new boards would be a good opportunity for me." He adds, "Had I remained at Daimler, there would have been constraints on the number of boards that I could serve on. Moving on provided me the opportunity to be on more than one board, and I wanted to join boards of companies outside the automotive industry. So, I'm on Kmart's board to learn more about retailing, and I'm on the Baxter board to learn about health care products." That reasoning falls in line with his philosophy of learning as much as he can about what other successful companies are doing. Stallkamp, who earned an MBA in organizational behavior, regularly studies companies like Intel Corp. and Motorola Inc. for management ideas.

DIRECTORS & BOARDS caught up with Stallkamp the day following his second board meeting at Baxter, which he says lasted a whopping eight hours. While he declined to reveal some of the new initiatives Baxter is undertaking, he did speak excitedly about Edwards Life-sciences, Baxter's cardiovascular products and services subsidiary which was spun off to form a new publicly traded NYSE company in April 2000.

"Baxter believes spinning off Edwards as a stand-alone business was a way for its cardiovascular business to grow on its own, and for Baxter to become more focused on its traditional renal and blood products businesses," Stallkamp explains.

Stallkamp says he was first approached by Baxter's soon-to-retire chairman, Vernon Loucks Jr., who said that Baxter's board had been looking to make some changes by adding outside expertise. Mainly, recalls Stallkamp, Baxter's board was looking for new directors who were currently running businesses, and specifically for someone who had expertise in supply-chain management. Stallkamp, whose talent for supply-chain and procurement management in the automobile industry was legendary, fit the bill.

"That led Vernon to me," says Stallkamp. "I talked to him for a month or so. And, I thought it was only right for me to talk to the new chairman -- Harry Kraemer, who became chairman and CEO at the end of the year. I met with Harry in December, we clicked, and so I became a member in February."

Among the reasons Stallkamp cites that led him to join Baxter's board are its success within the health care industry, its financial strength, and the quality of Baxter's management, now headed by a 42-year-old hard-charging CEO.

"He's quite an aggressive guy," says Stallkamp of Kraemer. "Baxter already has an aggressive growth pattern, and now, with this new CEO, I think you will see that he will take the company to the next level through an even more aggressive style? In April, Baxter beat analysts' expectations by reporting 18% growth in its first quarter earnings, and Wall Street is giving its stock a dozen "strong buy" recommendations.