“Would I describe myself as a nerd? Of yeah, definitely,” says Michael Baum with a chuckle. “I can quite happily spend my days now talking about how best to monitor nitrogen cycles in the soil...” That’s a new topic for Baum, however, albeit one that fits his profile. Baum is an entrepreneur, philanthropist and, more recently, the owner of Chateau Pommard, the French winery and estate established 1726 - making him the first American to own such an estate in Burgundy. It’s not only a new venture for him, but a new kind of venture. Baum, 57, made his money in the very different world of tech, as the creator of six start-ups, five of which he sold and the last of which, the machine data engine Splunk, went public with a record-breaking $5bn IPO. He looks the part, with a preference for wearing black - black jacket over black t-shirt, black jeans and black sneakers - offset with a flat top in silver-grey. And he can wax lyrical about how, for example, we should stop
worrying about Big Data, AI and driverless cars - all a long, long way off, he reckons - and start worrying about cyber-security, given the bad state actors “The problem is that the systems we use today are highly disaggregated - start up a Mac and 300 or so services come into play to make that happen. And that’s feeding day for the animals. From the security point of view, there’s huge value in aggregation - in owning multiple layers in a stack.” he says - all too aware that aggregation runs counter to demands for tech monopolies to be broken up, precisely to limit the reach of their influence and control over the oil that, more and more, allows the wheels of society to turn. “Put it this way - all of my systems are on Google and I feel safe with that, not because it can’t be hacked, but at least if it does it will will be from the inside.” He’s not alone in being a Silicon Valley king now investing in wine, of course, although he’s looked well beyond Napa Valley and back to the old world. “Back in California they talk of old
61