User:OracleNYC/Michael Dingman

Michael Dingman 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.

He was born in New Haven, Conn., Sept. 19, 1931, the son of Amelia and James E. Dingman, an executive vice chairman of AT&T. Following his early education at The Hun School in Princeton, N.J., Dingman enrolled at the University of Maryland, joining the Chi OX 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 wisely viewed as having significant potential value. 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, reflecting Wall Street’s confidence in the CEO.

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 breathe new life into 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, recognizing they had valuable assets but lacked structure, rules and attention to human capital. Although his common-sense approach and business acumen 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

China 

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 an outstanding 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. His advice and sharing in the foothills and valleys will likely become part of his legacy.

Contributions to Education

Although Dingman learned more in the business world than he did in the classroom, he is a firm believer in the power of education. His contributions toward making it not only better but accessible to many have ranged widely. He 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 his alma mater. 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.

One of the most talked about is the China Business Plan Competition. It draws on the Dingman Center's experience in entrepreneurship, new-venture creation and the recognition of opportunity, as well as the Guanghua School of Management's resources as the leading business school in China. Together they create a dynamic and unique 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.

Personal Life

The Dingmans’ marriage was a union of an Easterner and a Californian. The couple’s strong partnership in business and philanthropic endeavors is based on mutual respect and admiration. Together they have three children: James T. Dingman, David R. Dingman and Patrick M. Dingman. The family has lived in Lyford Cay since 1984, though Dingman is quick to point out that The Bahamas have been part of his life for as long as he can remember. Some of his fondest memories of his childhood are about the times he and his father took trips to the islands off the coast of Florida to fish. He has three children from a previous marriage: Michael Dingman Jr., Jim Dingman and Linda Cady

Boards

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. He is a benefactor and former trustee of the John A. Hartford Foundation and of Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts.