Golub Capital Board Fellows Program

Ted Baumgardner, JD/MBA ’24, has navigated both Navy decks and construction sites – first as a Marine Corps intelligence officer and later as a glazing estimator in the building industry. From the Mediterranean Sea to Okinawa, Japan, his military career demanded fast-paced data collection and precise organization — skills he later carried into civilian life in Philadelphia.

Both roles, though worlds apart, converged in 2023 when Baumgardner launched Guthrie AI, a business that uses artificial intelligence to help construction companies organize jobs, manage requests for bids and create proposals.

“What I do at Guthrie AI is similar to when I was an intelligence officer in the Marine Corps,” he said. “We would use different platforms to collect and synthesize all this data for our commander so he could take action.”

Baumgardner grew up in South Jersey in a family steeped in the building trades. His father runs a general contracting company, and his mother founded a glass and glazing company, where Baumgardner and his three brothers have all worked. He was in fifth grade when the Sept. 11 attacks occurred – events that left a deep impact and inspired his goal of serving in the military. That goal led him to the U.S. Naval Academy, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in quantitative economics.

After graduating, Baumgardner served eight years in the Marines during a period of relative peace. Much of his deployment was spent aboard Navy ships in the Mediterranean, the Suez Canal and the Arabian Gulf, working alongside fellow Marines to build relationships with partner forces. He spent his final three years stationed in Japan.

After leaving the Marines, Baumgardner returned to civilian life by enrolling in a dual JD/MBA degree at the University of Pennsylvania. Raised by two entrepreneurial parents, Baumgardner always knew he wanted to go into business. At the same time, he’d observed the litigious nature of the construction industry with both perplexity and curiosity – an experience that sparked his interest in law.

“Getting my MBA was something I knew I wanted to do,” he said. “When I found out that Penn had this incredible joint program with an interdisciplinary opportunity, it immediately appealed to me.”

During graduate school, Baumgardner worked as an estimator for his mother’s glass and glazing business. He noticed that advances in technology were producing an overwhelming volume of data — much of it confusing — for installers on job sites.

“That led me to try out different ideas to create a service for installers that could manage some of the documentation, organization and synthesis,” he said. “One of the best things about graduate school is it provided an opportunity for me to experiment and explore.”

At the same time he was testing his business ideas, he was accepted into the Golub Capital Board Fellows Program, which matches Wharton and Penn Law students to serve on the boards of nonprofit organizations in Philadelphia.

“The fellowship became one of the defining elements of my experience at Penn, because it gave me the opportunity to apply classroom lessons in a totally different environment: with a functioning board,” he said. “In addition, I was grateful that it connected me to the community of Philadelphia.”

Baumgardner was partnered with Beyond Literacy, a nonprofit offering adult education in reading, writing, math, English as a second language and digital literacy. The organization was formed in 2021 through the merger of two local nonprofits. In the wake of the consolidation, Beyond Literacy’s budget quadrupled to $6.6 million, and its staff grew threefold to 78.

“Because he joined us at such a pivotal moment, he worked with board attorneys to review our governance documents,” said Kimmell Proctor, CEO of Beyond Literacy.

First, he put together an onboarding packet for board members that laid out their legal duties and responsibilities. “He took that and built it out to be hosted online and made it a much more accessible and robust resource for new board members,” she said.

Next, Proctor asked him to evaluate options for switching the organization’s human resources provider to a professional employer organization, or PEO, to relieve administrative burden on staff. He completed the due diligence and presented his recommendation to the board. “One of the things he was able to bring to light was that the value of PEOs declines the larger the agency grows,” Proctor noted.

Beyond Literacy ended up hiring a company that Proctor had worked with before that fit better with the growth trajectory of the nonprofit. It was not the company that he had recommended — a decision that taught Baumgardner a difficult lesson in leadership.

“That was helpful for me to reframe what my contribution was to this organization,” he recalled. “My role wasn’t necessarily making the decisions; it was providing support and guidance to the folks in the trenches, who have more information than me about the nonprofit and its needs.

“Kimmell had more context and seasoned judgement than I had,” he added.

Baumgardner played a key role in launching the nonprofit’s Young Friends Advisory Group, a subcommittee of the board that’s a pipeline for volunteers and potential board members. “It’s been fantastic because we now have more young professionals — particularly from Penn — helping us and working directly with our learners,” Proctor said.

By the time he completed his MBA, Baumgardner had launched Guthrie AI, where he often applies learnings from his fellowship.

“Because I’m a service provider to small construction companies, I’m supporting them, not making decisions for them,” he said. “It’s difficult for me because I want to be in the trenches, but it’s a learning I’m pulling from my experience as a board fellow.”

As soon as Baumgardner completed his fellowship, the leadership team of Beyond Literacy asked him to join the board as a full member. Even with one year left in law school, he accepted. He served on the Finance Committee, where he helped ensure the nonprofit’s funding remains robust, even in current times.

“When you have a [nonpartisan] organization like Beyond Literacy that does so much good and doesn’t ask someone’s political affiliation when they provide services — it’s really important to me to make sure it has the resources to continue the mission, regardless of the political climate,” he said.

Baumgardner recently stepped down from the board after three years of service to focus on his growing business and family. Proctor said Baumgardner was an outstanding board member who brought “bold ideas and younger energy to the board.” His background in real estate and construction was especially valuable: When Beyond Literacy’s co-tenant approached the nonprofit about buying a building together and consolidating shared services such as reception, Baumgardner was asked to assess the proposal. The board is weighing the idea.

Proctor lauded Baumgardner for being an engaged board member from both financial and legal perspectives. “He was active on our committee and such a great thought partner to me. “To have any of those things as a board member is important,” she said. “But to be able to have them all in Ted made him a standout member of our board leadership team.”