2017 Most Admired CEOs: Chad Dunkley
by the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal
Chad Dunkley, CEO of New Horizon Academy, defies a classic CEO stereotype – he never puts the bottom line first. For a CEO running a company dedicated to increasing early-education opportunities for kids, that’s an invaluable mentality.
“We really believe in doing the right thing for the kids,” Dunkley said. “We often say that our CFO has the toughest job, because most of us sit around the table and say, ‘There’s this new thing and it’s the best thing to do for kids,’ and we just look at the CFO and say, ‘You find a way to pay for it.’ “
Dunkley, himself, is an example of the successes of New Horizon’s child care programs. His mother founded the company, and Dunkley and his brother were two of its first students. Since then he’s stayed in the classrooms, spending time as a teacher’s aid, waxing floors, supervising cleaning crews and working on the company’s financial side. In 2002, he became chief operating officer and moved into the CEO position three years ago.
New Horizon has opened 22 new centers since 2002, and plans to open nine more in the next year, including expanding into Iowa and Colorado. The company serves nearly 10,000 children every day.
Dunkley’s leadership philosophy maintains that every single goal put forward is met.
“Leadership comes down to the little things that you do every day. And we have a commitment here that we keep our promises, and we only make promises we can keep.”
Beyond his work at New Horizon, Dunkley spends time in the community advocating about the importance of funding early child care. Sweeping budget cuts to Minnesota education in 2002 made it difficult for low- and middle-income families to afford early child care, but Dunkley and his team convinced allies in the business community to pilot early-education scholarships. The pilot was successful, and the Legislature created the Minnesota Early Learning Scholarship fund soon afterwards.
That advocacy work was how long-time employee and now Executive Vice President Mary Terrass first met Dunkley.
“A group of us were at the Capitol one day testifying,” Terrass said. “He got up and testified and I was absolutely amazed at not only his grasp of the issues, but also the passion that he had. And I remember thinking to myself, ‘I really want to work with someone like that one day.’ ”
Read the full article here.
