Management Experience:
Dennis has had a broad range of management experiences in the military and the private sector and with government and nonprofit organizations.
As a young man, he served as a platoon leader, company commander, and battalion adjutant in the Army Corps of Engineers in Thailand and at Fort Carson, Colorado.
In his first professional position after graduating from college, he became an officer and board member in a small and well-regarded Denver consulting firm. Subsequently, he founded his own economic and market research firm. His research for the Joint Economic Committee of Congress led to a position at the University of Colorado where he directed the Center for the Improvement of Public Management. After running training programs for public sector managers, he experienced the challenges of managing in government first hand. He served as the deputy director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources under four different cabinet members and, for a short time, he was the director of the Governor’s Policy Office.
Dennis was the Regional Director for The Nature Conservancy’s 11-state Western Region that included states as diverse and interesting as Alaska, Oregon, Arizona, and New Mexico. He then worked as a senior facilitator and as director of The Keystone Center’s Science and Public Policy Program. In 2000, he joined long-time friend and colleague, John Huyler, in creating The Osprey Group to continue their facilitation and organizational development work with state and local governments and nonprofit organizations.
In addition to his work experience in the public, private and nonprofit sectors, Dennis has served on a number of nonprofit and public agency boards and commissions.
His managerial experience adds to his ability to appreciate the challenges facing many public sector and nonprofit managers. These challenges range from the inherent difficulties of dealing with competing constituencies or the need to work effectively with elected officials, to the importance of building broad-based support for initiatives and the challenges associated with measuring and ensuring success.