How has he transformed the scene?
Charles (Chuck) Denny can be said to have had two careers. The first was a successful career in corporate leadership, most notably attending to the rise of Eden Prairie-based ADC to trans-global status as a leading telecommunications company. Under Denny’s guidance from 1971-1991, ADC tailored its products and services to capitalize on expanding markets in telephone and Internet-service industries.
“A hero of mine and a hero to many: generous, supportive, incredibly active in all things that make Minnesota corporations more competitive and ethically grounded. If you are willing to work, he will be your mentor.”
Kate Rubin, President, Minnesota High Tech Association
While in this leadership role at ADC, Denny also worked actively to advance the state’s high-tech industry as a whole. As Founding Director of the nonprofit Minnesota Project Innovation, he worked to access funding through federal grants for Minnesota’s start-up, early stage, and established companies. By 2005, when Project Innovation’s operations were transferred to the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, the organization had helped to bring in more than $250 million for creation and growth of Minnesota businesses and corporations: a remarkable rise from 35th to 13th in the national rankings of funds received.
Denny’s second career, running concurrently with the first and continuing in his “retirement,” has been to attend to the rise of another trans-global movement—the movement toward stronger corporate ethics. Denny was a major figure in the drafting and advancement of “The Minnesota Principles,” a set of standards establishing an ethical basis for business conduct which incorporated (among others) the ideals of fairness, honesty, respect for human dignity, and respect for the environment. He was instrumental in the successful effort to have the standards substantively adopted as worldwide principles for business through the international alliance known as the Caux Round Table. The Minnesota Center for Corporate Responsibility, which coordinated the “Principles” initiative, later conferred upon Denny its highest honor: the Distinguished Corporate Citizenship Award (“In this country, we can’t give you knighthood,” quipped award presenter Tony Andersen.).
Denny has also been a strong and outspoken advocate for corporate responsibility within professional organizations such as the Minnesota High Tech Association, through leadership roles in numerous civic and nonprofit boards, and his writings on topical issues in the popular press.
Denny retired as CEO of ADC Telecommunications in 1991, and as ADC’s board chair in 1994. In the years since, he has served the community in numerous capacities, as a member of the Minnesota Civil Liberties Union Foundation, the Mayo Clinic Regional Council, the Science Museum of Minnesota Board of Trustees, the Caux Round Table, and the Humphrey Institute’s Dean’s Advisory Council. In the year 2007-08, he was selected as the Louis W. Hill, Jr. Fellow in Philanthropy (based in the Humphrey Institute’s Public and Nonprofit Leadership Center), which provided opportunity for Denny to distill his experience, perspective and philosophy into the seminal report: “The Corporation in Modern American Society.”
