Who Founded 3M?

Michael F. Roman, previously 3M's chief operating officer, succeeded Inge Thulin as CEO on July 1, 2018. His tenure covered the 2019 acquisitions of Acelity (about $6.7 billion enterprise value) and M*Modal's technology business ($1.0 billion), the COVID-19 respirator surge, the June 2023 PFAS settlement with U.S. public water suppliers (up to $10.3 billion present value over 13 years), the August 2023 Combat Arms earplug settlement ($6.0 billion over 2023-2029) and the April 1, 2024 spin-off of the health care business as Solventum.

Swedish-born Inge G. Thulin, a 3M veteran who had built its international business and served as chief operating officer, became president and CEO on February 24, 2012, succeeding George Buckley. His tenure included the $2.5 billion acquisition of Capital Safety in 2015 and the $2.0 billion purchase of Scott Safety from Johnson Controls in 2017. He handed the CEO role to Michael Roman on July 1, 2018 and became executive chairman.

George Buckley, who joined 3M from Brunswick Corporation in 2005, is credited with reinvesting in 3M's research and development capabilities after a period under his predecessor James McNerney when cost-cutting had reduced R&D spending and raised questions about the company's long-term innovation trajectory. Buckley restored R&D investment levels, reinvigorated the company's laboratory culture, and presided over a period of meaningful organic growth and international expansion. His tenure also included several significant acquisitions that expanded 3M's safety and healthcare portfolios. Buckley's recognition that cutting R&D at 3M was structurally different and more dangerous than cutting R&D at other industrial companies because innovation is the source of 3M's premium pricing power rather than merely a cost center was an important philosophical contribution to the company's long-term positioning.

W. James McNerney Jr. was the first CEO hired from outside 3M, arriving from General Electric in 2001. He introduced GE-style Six Sigma process discipline and cost controls across 3M before leaving in mid-2005 to become chairman and CEO of Boeing.

Lew Lehr led 3M during one of its most commercially successful periods, overseeing the national launch of Post-it Notes in 1980 and managing the company's expansion into international markets during a period of strong global economic growth. Lehr was known for his commitment to preserving 3M's innovation culture during a period when many American industrial conglomerates were adopting more financially driven, cost-cutting management philosophies. His leadership reinforced the company's identity as a technology innovator rather than a financial engineering vehicle, a distinction that would prove increasingly valuable as competitive landscapes intensified in the 1980s and 1990s.

William Lester McKnight is more responsible than any founder for creating the organizational philosophy and cultural infrastructure that made 3M's sustained innovation record possible across the twentieth century. McKnight articulated the management principles give employees latitude to experiment, tolerate well-intentioned failures, and trust that distributed innovation will outperform central planning that became 3M's defining competitive asset. He also institutionalized the 15 Percent Rule, which allowed employees to allocate a portion of their work time to self-directed projects and produced well-known breakthroughs including the Post-it Note. McKnight's fifty-two-year influence on 3M represents one of the longest and most consequential leadership tenures in American industrial history.