Michael Baker

Chief Technology Officer at Wellington Management

Boston, Massachusetts, United States

About Michael Baker

Michael Baker is Chief Technology Officer at Wellington Management. Location: Boston, Massachusetts, United States.

I'm the Chief Technology Officer at Wellington Management, where I lead technology for one of the world's largest independent investment managers, more than $1 trillion in client assets, serving clients in over 60 countries. My mandate is an AI-first transformation: rebuilding how we deliver technology around durable product teams, modern data platforms, disciplined governance, and AI that moves beyond pilots into measurable production impact. I've spent three decades leading technology at some of the most demanding firms in finance, Citadel, Fidelity, MarketAxess, and PGIM, where I served as Chief Information & Technology Officer before joining Wellington. Earlier in my career I was chief software architect at Bankers Trust and co-founded a technology startup. The pattern across all of it is consistent: I'm brought in when a firm needs technology to stop being a cost center and become a strategic capability. What shapes my approach is simple: I never stopped building. I still write code. I prototype the AI systems I ask my teams to adopt, run agentic systems in my own projects, and pressure-test architecture decisions with a practitioner's skepticism. My view of enterprise AI is grounded because I work with these systems hands-on. I know what they actually do, where they fail, and what it takes to make them dependable at scale. I believe technology leadership is a craft. The job is to compose disciplined, humane systems — technical and organizational — and then bring people into understanding them. The best transformations aren't imposed; they're taught. Away from the office, I apply the same instinct at a different scale on my property in the Poconos: off-grid power systems, home-built automation, orchards, and a workshop that's never quite finished. Building isn't just what I do for a living. It's how I think.

Skills

  • CIO
  • CTO
  • Asset Management

Additional experience

  • Chief Information & Technology Officer

    PGIM

    October 2023 – September 2025

Education

  • EXECUTIVE PROGRAM, Kellogg Executive Education
  • Software Development, Computer Processing Institute