Executive development
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Michele Dunn has seen entitlement from the nonentitled side of the street. She bucked male domination and dissed the typing track when women in corporate America either typed or they clocked in with the cleaning crew. Personal loss has ganged up on her in a way that makes the universe itself seem unkind. And through it all ”“ a life made for a book ”“ she has used intelligence and grit to rise to the top of the executive development field.
Dunn, a Wilton resident was born Michele Miles, the daughter of an Irish-American family from Manhasset, Long Island. She attended St. Mary”™s Catholic School and was strategic with her talents and aware of the challenges to women at a young age.
“I learned how to type in St. Mary”™s High School, but when I first came into my career I didn”™t tell anyone that I could type,” said Dunn. “The image would have been that I was the secretary and I didn”™t want to be the secretary.”
The first trying experience of Dunn”™s life came after her brother was sent to Vietnam and returned missing both of his legs.
“It was, and still to this day is, one of the most significant experiences of my life,” said Dunn. “I had no idea what was going on in the world. I was very much wrapped up in my high school experience.”
Dunn recounted the morning after her junior prom, receiving a brief yet poignant message about her brother Ed losing both legs above the knees and suffering serious head and neck wounds.
According to Dunn the St. Mary”™s community was a great support during that time.
“That was such a trauma and such an anchor for me in seeing what”™s important and not important in life,” said Dunn.
Her brother, after 16 major surgeries in 10 years, went on to found the Vietnam Veterans of America with clinics in Cambodia, which won the Noble Peace Prize in 1997.
Dunn was in the first class of women to attend Fairfield University.
“That was a pioneering kind of experience,” said Dunn. “To be the first group of women at the school was a big deal, more than I knew. It did shape me in that I became comfortable in experiences where I was outnumbered 10 to one; it gave me the opportunity to become comfortable in scenarios where it”™s mostly men.”
After attending Fairfield for a year, she was urged to go to Marymount University in Virginia, a two year college.
“I learned a lot about elitism and privilege at Marymount,” said Dunn. “I learned how to live in that world, be successful in that world, without being part of that world.”
Dunn finished out her degree at the University of Albany, where she says she was able to get a look at the broader world.
Dunn graduated in 1974 with a double B.A. in political science and business.
In September of that same year, she married her husband Alan Dunn, a then merchant marine.
“We were married for nine years before we had any children,” said Dunn.
Dunn moved to Tarrytown, New York and began her first job working for Time Inc. as the subscriber billing manager.
Dunn”™s manager at Time, Doris O”™Neill, was her first female role model. A remnant from the World War II temporary female staff, O”™Neill had single-handedly saved the picture catalogue from Time and Life magazines from oblivion in a New Jersey warehouse.Â
“She taught me that if you believe in something and you”™re willing to fight for it, you can make it happen,” said Dunn. “She literally changed the structure of Time.”
Dunn attended graduate school at Pace University in New York City, taking the E train from end to end using her travel time to study. She received her MBA in 1979.
“I was the only one on that staff that was not from Harvard,” said Dunn. “It was another experience where I learned how to function with people who were not like me, very much of the privileged and elite. It can make you feel inadequate and diminished and doesn”™t give a true gauge of your value.”
In 1981, Dunn entered the world of training after being recruited from Time by the SCM Corporation in Ossining, N.Y.
“They taught me everything I know and formed the basis for everything that I do,” said Dunn. “I managed their executive program, designed the courses and retained the faculty. I learned that the numbers speak to you. When I”™m working with leadership, when I”™m working with executives, or looking at a company as a potential for investment, I read the annual report; every line of it can say something.”
After having her first child (of four) in 1983, Dunn became an independent consultant.
“My former employer became my first client,” she said.
Dunn”™s client list grew quickly, with Mobil Oil as her second customer.
“What I landed into was what is now my work with GE,” said Dunn.
Dunn came to GE as a consultant to the company during Jack Welch”™s tenure as CEO.
“It was perfect timing for me,” said Dunn. “They were redoing their curriculum and rolling out with what made him a legend.”
Welch was changing the culture and organization of GE and Dunn was part of the first Work-Out team at GE. Work-Out has since become the well-known method for busting bureaucracy and attacking organizational problems.
Dunn is currently a master instructor at GE”™s John F. Welch Leadership Development Center in Ossining, N.Y.
“I have now taught about 10,000 GE leaders since I started there in 1985,” said Dunn. “One of the reasons I love working with GE from the beginning is there”™s not a lot of Ivy League. It”™s a meritocracy, it”™s a performance-driven organization, what matters is what results you deliver. Values are huge there.”
Dunn designs and teaches in the advanced management course, new manager development, developing business leadership, and introducing experienced leaders courses.
Having almost 2 million sky miles with Delta, Dunn is the first force GE calls on to go to the edges of the earth. Dunn has trekked for GE multiple times to China, India, Brazil, Mexico and Europe.
Dunn, who remains independent from GE, has taught for Ford, Union Carbide, PepsiCo, Merck, Time Warner and the U.S. government. Her three areas of expertise are executive development, one-on-one executive coaching and board effectiveness.
In 1997, Dunn”™s husband diagnosed with melanoma. Two months later, her sister died of ovarian cancer. Two months after that, her mother died of cancer. Her husband died in 2001 and her brother who was then helping around her house died in 2005.
Dunn said that through all her loss she has kept positive and feels that she is now ready to put her business, which most would see as already infinitely successful, into full swing.
“I”™ve been through a lot and I feel like I”™m ready now to offer that in a bigger way,” said Dunn.