- Michael D. Dingman
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Michael David Dingman (born September 19, 1931) is an international investor, businessman and philanthropist recognized for revitalizing companies and bringing entrepreneurial skills and structure to emerging economies. He is President of Shipston Group Ltd., a diversified international holding company based in Nassau, Bahamas.
Michael D. Dingman Born New Haven, Connecticut, United States Occupation Businessman, Investor, and Philanthropist Known for President and CEO Of Shipston Group Limited Contents
Early life
He was born in New Haven, Connecticut, September 19, 1931. Following his early education at The Hun School in Princeton, New Jersey, Dingman enrolled at the University of Maryland, joining the Theta Chi fraternity and developing a lifelong allegiance to the institution that would benefit its College of Business. He was barely 20 when he left the university for his first hands-on business experience with the Wall Street investment firm of Burnham & Company, headed by W. "Tubby" Burnham, the founder, who mentored his new hire.
Dingman became a Burnham partner in 1970 and was assigned to the initial public stock offering of the predecessor of Temple-Inland Inc., a Fortune 500 company. While at Burnham, he also became president and chief executive officer of Equity Corp., a troubled investment company that he viewed as having significant potential value.[1]
He combined its Wheelabrator industrial-cleaning and air-pollution-control units with Frye Copysystems, a manufacturer of printing inks and carbon paper, to create Wheelabrator-Frye Inc. Dingman was elected chief executive officer of the new company, a position he held until 1983, when Wheelabrator was acquired by The Signal Companies, an aerospace and industrial firm based in La Jolla, Calif. Dingman was elected Signal’s president.
Allied Corporation and Signal merged in 1985, and in 1986 35 units of the combined company were spun off as The Henley Group, headed by Dingman. He welcomed the opportunity to build on the most promising of these companies and sell the rest. Henley’s initial public offering raised a record 1.2 billion United States dollars, reflecting Wall Street’s confidence in the CEO.[2]
Henley’s Wheelabrator Technologies (now a unit of Waste Management, Inc.) strengthened its leadership in the rapidly growing waste-to-energy market. Fisher Scientific International Inc., the world leader in serving science, completed more than 60 acquisitions after becoming a public company in 1991. It merged with Thermo Electron Corporation in 2006. Now doing business as Thermo Fisher Scientific, the company reported 2009 revenues of more than $10 billion.
Beginning in the 1990s, Dingman set his sights on offshore opportunities, particularly in Russia and other countries in the Soviet bloc. With Russia riding a wave of privatization, Shipston joined a consortium investing in OAO Sidanco, one of the country’s largest oil companies. Dingman and Shipston brought more than capital. They provided management know-how and a long-term focus on the success of the company. Shipston later sold its interest in OAO Sidanco to British Petroleum and Tyumen Oil Company (TNK).
Dingman was also a major shareholder in Segezha Pulp and Paper, later sold to AssiDoman AB, a Swedish company. Other activities ranged from property investments to the Russian water company Saint Springs, later sold to Nestle. Dingman and Shipston also became the founding venture investors in Renaissance Capital, one of Russia’s leading investment companies. Shipston was also a member of an investment consortium that acquired a minority interest in the telecom OAO Svyazinvest.
Parlaying the experience that had earned him a reputation as a company turnaround expert in America, Dingman invested his own funds, skills and energy to renovate noncompetitive, outdated companies in the Czech Republic. Under the umbrella of paper giant Stratton Company, which he headed, Dingman poured more than $100 million of his own money into newly privatized utilities and other companies.[3] As he produced positive results, Dingman suffered from international press attacks, largely as a result of the actions of local partners. He was never linked to any wrongdoing, and today his guidance is viewed favorably in that country.[citation needed]
Shipston is now heavily invested in mainland China, focusing on its internal growth and consumption. Drawing on relationships with local partners formed in recent years, Shipston continues to invest in a range of industries. With offices in Nanjing and Beijing, the company has acquired a portfolio of businesses in education, medical technologies and heavy industry. Cementing relationships with local partners formed in recent years, Dingman has traveled into the far regions of China where few, if any, Americans have been.
Education philanthropy
Michael Dingman and his wife, Elizabeth Tharp Dingman, provided a new start for the Lyford Cay School near their home in the Bahamas. They helped to rebuild it, doubling its class size from fewer than a hundred students to 200. In addition, the school is now qualified for international accreditation, enabling graduating students to be admitted to, and succeed academically at, leading universities. In 1989, Dingman endowed the Michael D. Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship at the R.H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, his alma mater.[4] It consistently ranks among the top 10 centers for entrepreneurship in the United States. It provides practical mentoring services to emerging growth companies around the world and fosters entrepreneurship through a variety of other programs and services.[5]
Michael Dingman visited and spoke at the center on September 21st, 2010. This was to mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of the center being established, and featured Dingman as the keynote speaker for the occasion. [6][7]
One of the most talked about is the China Business Plan Competition.[citation needed] It draws on the Dingman Center's experience as well as the Guanghua School of Management's resources. Together they create a cross-continent initiative to train and educate emerging entrepreneurs. Dingman has also been very supportive of his high school, The Hun School, which named The Michael D. Dingman Center for Science and Technology in his honor in 1987.
Mr. and Mrs. Dingman are devoted Catholics who were awarded the Order of Saint Sylvester by John Paul II for their work with the Catholic Church in the Bahamas. This honor includes the official title Knight and Dame Dingman.
Board involvement
Dingman is a former director of Ford Motor Company (21 years), and of Time Inc. and then Time Warner Inc. (24 years), and he has served as a director of Mellon Bank Corporation, Temple Industries Inc., Temple-Inland Inc., Continental Telephone Company and Teekay Shipping Corporation.[8]
He is a benefactor and former trustee of the John A. Hartford Foundation and of Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
Resources
- ^ "CNN's Most Fascinating Business People". January 5, 1987. http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1987/01/05/68516/index.htm. Retrieved June 1, 2010.
- ^ "The Henley Group Inc. Company History". http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/THE-HENLEY-GROUP-INC-Company-History.html. Retrieved June 1, 2010.
- ^ "Stratton acquires control of Europe's largest paper sack mill.". http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-18011139.htmlAlthough. Retrieved June 1, 2010.[dead link]
- ^ "Robert H. Smith School of Business". http://www.rhsmith.umd.edu/dingman/insidethecenter/benefactor.aspx. Retrieved June 1, 2010.
- ^ "RHS Address University of Maryland". http://realtime.rhsmith.umd.edu/media/podcasts/dingman/Dingman_25th_Sept212010/Dingman_speech_2minutes.mov. Retrieved Oct 10, 2010.
- ^ "Michael D. Dingman 25 Years Center For Entrepreneurship". http://www.rhsmith.umd.edu/news/stories/2010/dingman25years.aspx. Retrieved September 21, 2010.
- ^ "Dingman Keynote Address Video". http://realtime.rhsmith.umd.edu/media/podcasts/dingman/Dingman_25th_Sept212010/Dingman_speech_2minutes.mov. Retrieved September 21, 2010.
- ^ "Businessweek Investor Profile". http://investing.businessweek.com/businessweek/research/stocks/people/person.asp?personId=588980&ticker=F:US&previousCapId=36235&previousTitle=Vertex%20Pharmaceuticals%20Inc.. Retrieved June 1, 2010.
Categories:- Living people
- 1931 births
- American financial businesspeople
- University of Maryland, College Park alumni
- University of Maryland, College Park benefactors
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