Dennis is a Clinical Professor of Corporate Governance at the University of Texas at Dallas where he also serves as Executive Director of the Institute for Excellence in Corporate Governance. He heads the Institute’s conferences, in-house programs and events. He is a long-time member of the National Association of Corporate Directors and holds the Governance Fellow designation. He is also a faculty member for the NACD’s Board Advisory Services. Dennis has owned his financial consulting firm, McCuistion & Associates, Inc., since 1977. He is a former bank CEO who joined his first for-profit board in the early 1970s. Since that time he has served on over a dozen private, public and nonprofit boards including serving as Chairman of the Board and Lead Independent Director.
He has served on the board and audit committees of two New York Stock Exchange companies and one American Stock Exchange company since 2003. One of those companies was sold in a private equity buyout for $1.6 billion and was consummated in 2006. Dennis was the Lead Independent Director in that insurance company. Additionally, Dennis served as the chairman of the Nominating and Governance Committee and on the Audit Committee of a Fortune 500 business process outsourcing company with 62,000 employees worldwide. During his tenure he served on special committees which were charged with the responsibility of investigation of stock option backdating and the eventual firing of the CEO and CFO. Additionally, he was involved in two aborted private equity buyouts during the credit crisis of 2006 to 2008. Dennis has been involved with taking companies public, raising capital, and the evaluation of boards and their individual members.
During his career he has been a life-long educator, having served on the faculties of several graduate schools of management for financial related firms. His topics have included strategic planning, leadership, financial analysis and corporate governance. He is a “recovering bank CEO”, has authored three books on the financial services industry, and is a frequent speaker for corporations, associations and universities. He regularly facilitates all types of panel discussions and board and corporate planning retreats.
Finally, he is the host of a television program on PBS, a position he has held since 1990. In that role, he has interviewed and facilitated thousands of important dialogues about political, economic, business and social issues of the day. He is also in demand as an expert on other radio and television programs including CNBC, Bloomberg, Fox News, and various network affiliates.