Charlie Baker

This article is about the former governor of Massachusetts. For other people with the same name, see Charlie Baker (disambiguation).

Charlie Baker
Official portrait, 2018
6th President of the NCAA
Incumbent
Assumed office
March 1, 2023
Preceded byMark Emmert
72nd Governor of Massachusetts
In office
January 8, 2015 – January 5, 2023
LieutenantKaryn Polito
Preceded byDeval Patrick
Succeeded byMaura Healey
Secretary of Administration and Finance of Massachusetts
In office
November 1994 – September 1998
GovernorBill Weld
Paul Cellucci
Preceded byMark E. Robinson
Succeeded byFrederick Laskey
Secretary of Health and Human Services of Massachusetts
In office
October 1992 – November 1994
GovernorBill Weld
Preceded byDavid Forsberg
Succeeded byGerald Whitburn
Personal details
Born
Charles Duane Baker Jr.

(1956-11-13) November 13, 1956 (age 68)
Elmira, New York, U.S.
Political partyRepublican
Spouse
Lauren Schadt
​
(m. 1987)​
Children3
RelativesCharles Baker (father)
Education
Signature
This article is part of a series about
Charlie Baker
Pre-governorship
Governor of Massachusetts

Charles Duane Baker Jr. (born November 13, 1956) is an American politician who is the current president of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 72nd governor of Massachusetts from 2015 to 2023, and held two cabinet positions under two previous governors of Massachusetts. He also served for ten years as the CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care.

Baker grew up in Needham, Massachusetts, earned a BA from Harvard University in 1979,[1][2] and later obtained an MBA from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. In 1991, he became Massachusetts Undersecretary of Health and Human Services under Governor Bill Weld. In 1992, he was appointed secretary of health and human services of Massachusetts. He later served as Secretary of Administration and Finance under Weld and his successor, Paul Cellucci.

After working in government for eight years, Baker left to become CEO of Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates and later Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, a nonprofit health benefits company. During this time he served three years as a selectman of Swampscott and considered a run for Massachusetts governor in 2006. He stepped down in July 2009 to run for governor on a platform of fiscal conservatism and cultural liberalism. He was unopposed in the Republican primary but lost the 2010 general election to Democratic incumbent Deval Patrick.

In 2014, Baker ran for governor again and narrowly defeated Democratic nominee Martha Coakley. In 2018, he was reelected handily over Democratic challenger Jay Gonzalez with 67% of the vote, the largest vote share in a Massachusetts gubernatorial election since 1994.[3] Nonpartisan polls consistently found him to be among the nation's most popular governors.[4][5][6][7] In December 2021, Baker and his Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito both announced that they would not seek reelection in 2022.[8] Baker and Polito are the last Republicans to hold statewide office in Massachusetts.

On December 15, 2022, Baker was named as Mark Emmert's successor as president of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. He assumed the role on March 1, 2023.[9][10][11]

  1. ^ Altringer, Beth; Habbal, Fawwaz (2015). "Embedding design thinking in a multidisciplinary engineering curriculum". VentureWell. Proceedings of Open, the Annual Conference (PDF). National Collegiate Inventors & Innovators Alliance. p. 1. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 11, 2017. Retrieved July 17, 2022.
  2. ^ Abbott, Nathan (1901). "The Undergraduate Study Law". Annual Report of the American Bar Association. HeinOnline. 24: 498–513.
  3. ^ Swasey, Benjamin; Brown, Steve (November 6, 2018). "Mass. Gov. Baker Wins Re-Election". WBUR. Retrieved November 13, 2018.
  4. ^ Leins, Casey (July 19, 2019). "The Most Popular and Least Popular Governors". U.S. News & World Report. Retrieved July 23, 2019.
  5. ^ "America's Most (and Least) Popular Governors". Morning Consult. January 10, 2019. Retrieved January 12, 2019.
  6. ^ "Poll: Baker Is Nation's Most Popular Governor; RI's Raimondo Is Most Unpopular". WBZ-TV. October 17, 2019. Retrieved October 23, 2019.
  7. ^ "Charlie Baker Falls To Third In Most Popular Governor Poll". WBZ-TV. January 17, 2020. Retrieved January 17, 2020.
  8. ^ Epstein, Reid J. (December 1, 2021). "Gov. Charlie Baker of Massachusetts Says He Won't Run for Re-election". The New York Times. Retrieved December 1, 2021.
  9. ^ Mahoney, Andrew (December 15, 2022). "Outgoing Mass. Governor Charlie Baker to replace Mark Emmert as next NCAA president". The Boston Globe. Retrieved December 15, 2022.
  10. ^ Picciotto, Rebecca (December 15, 2022). "NCAA picks Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker as next president". CNBC. Retrieved December 15, 2022.
  11. ^ Auerbach, Nicole (December 15, 2022). "NCAA taps Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker as next president, succeeding Mark Emmert". The Athletic. Retrieved December 16, 2022.