Robert “Bob” Baron is the president and CEO of Baron Weather, Inc., an international leader in weather data intelligence systems. The company has created and implemented live radar and storm tracking technologies that enable emergency officials to quickly detect dangerous storms and disseminate alerts to those in harm’s way. They provide weather intelligence products and solutions to a wide array of industries, meteorological organizations and public servants around the world.
Baron Weather patented the ability to send alerts exclusively to people directly affected. It presents its data in various formats, allowing its products to be used in a variety of use cases including road weather, aviation, nautical navigation, and recreation. Furthermore, via SiriusXM, the weather to the cockpit, WxWorx, continues to be an industry leader.
The company provided this warning system technology to the state of Alabama free of charge following the 2011 super outbreak of tornadoes, when the Governor’s task force established a need for a statewide alert system of this nature.
In 2007, the National Weather Service chose Baron Services to upgrade each of its 171 radars to possess dual polarity capabilities made possible by Baron’s technology.
Baron founded the company in 1990 after a tornado outbreak – including a devastating F4 that hit Huntsville – made clear a need for site-specific weather alerts. The system visualized strike-by-strike lightning data from NASA‘s nearby Marshall Space Flight Center and its first two users were Huntsville Utilities and aerospace contractor, Thiokol, Inc., both of whom were highly interested in gaining better understandings of lightning strikes. For the former, to better position trucks after lightning storms; for the latter, knowing where lightning was striking around propellent-filled rockets.
Prior to this, he served as chief meteorologist at Channel 48, Huntsville’s NBC News affiliate. He brought 22 years of industry experience to his company.
“I have known Bob for many years and cannot think of any individual who deserves the honor of induction more,” said William Stender, Jr., a 2016 Alabama Business Hall of Fame inductee.
“He is a self-made man, working from an early age, from the bottom up, as a media personality in radio and television to a respected member of the meteorological broadcast community to an enterprising entrepreneur in the weather data dissemination arena to, finally today, the highly respected Chief Executive Officer of Baron Weather, Inc.”
Baron is a long-standing member of the American Meteorological Society (AMS) and was the recipient of the AMS Seal of Approval for Television in 1982. AMS honored him again in 2010 with elevation to AMS Fellow for outstanding contributions to atmospheric sciences.
He was recognized as the 1996 Small Business Executive of the Year by the Huntsville and Madison County Chamber of Commerce, and in 1998 Baron Services received the Mass Mutual Blue-Chip award for small businesses. In 2005, Baron was recognized as a candidate for Inc. Magazine’s Entrepreneur of the Year, and in 2006 the Alabama House of Representatives awarded him a commendation based on his company’s contributions to the safety and well-being of the public.
He attended the University of Tennessee, where he graduated with his undergraduate degree in broadcast journalism. In 2011, UT’s Haslam College of Business named Baron Entrepreneur of the Year.
Baron and his wife Phylis recently celebrated their 54h wedding anniversary. They have two children, son Robert Jr., who is a recently retired Executive Vice President at Baron Weather, Inc., and daughter Elizebeth.
