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"CEO'S GO MIA"
A Place to Heal A Wounded Heart
An executive recruiter didn't have to work hard to convince Dann
Wallis to come to the Emerald Coast. But it took a little more work
for Wallis to take another position.
Wallis had discovered the area in 1979 when he and his wife
sought a soul-mending setting to cope with a family tragedy. Their
21-year-old daughter had been killed in a traffic accident in a
blinding snowstorm in Iowa. Their friends had convinced them to
visit the area. They did and bought a condo on impulse - returning
periodically over the years for the solace and serenity of the coast.
Wallis made quite a mark in his industry. His career track in
industrial engineering includes receiving top honors at the Navy's
sonar school and a diploma bestowed by Pres. Harry Truman, who
was visiting the summer White House in Key West at the time. But
some of his best work doesn't even exist on this planet.
"You can find part of my career legacy on the moon," he notes. "I
Hand-built some of the potentiometric transducers incorporated
into the Surveyor, the first instrument package 'soft-landed' on the
moon," he says.
Wallis' creative approach to problem solving and consensus
building had made him an industry star. But it took some
convincing to coax Wallis out of retirement and into the position as
a director of a manufacturing consortium in Fort Walton Beach - the
Technology Coast Manufacturing and Engineering Network.
"I developed the reputation as a turnaround specialist," he admits.
His clients included Tappan Company, Singer Motor Products,
Nichols-Kusan, and the North American Division of Fairchild's
International Manufacturing Group.
Indeed, Wallis was never stovepiped as a cog in a mundane
quality-control role. He held senior-level positions as vice president
and eventually as president of the Nichols-Kusan Company.
When contacted, Wallis had set his mind to kicking back and
moving to the beat of a new drum and working on his novel about
two Civil War soldiers. Eventually, Wallis was offered membership
in the Institute of Senior Professionals, a veritable warehouse of
intellectual capital that works pro bono on community development
projects.
"The quality of life on the Emerald Coast is without equal anywhere
in the United State," he says. "I've lived on all three coasts - in
Texas and across the Midwest and into the Northeast. What we
have is not to be found in any of those areas."
Emerald Coast Magazine; Summer 2003
A Place to Heal A Wounded Heart
An executive recruiter didn't have to work hard to convince Dann
Wallis to come to the Emerald Coast. But it took a little more work
for Wallis to take another position.
Wallis had discovered the area in 1979 when he and his wife
sought a soul-mending setting to cope with a family tragedy. Their
21-year-old daughter had been killed in a traffic accident in a
blinding snowstorm in Iowa. Their friends had convinced them to
visit the area. They did and bought a condo on impulse - returning
periodically over the years for the solace and serenity of the coast.
Wallis made quite a mark in his industry. His career track in
industrial engineering includes receiving top honors at the Navy's
sonar school and a diploma bestowed by Pres. Harry Truman, who
was visiting the summer White House in Key West at the time. But
some of his best work doesn't even exist on this planet.
"You can find part of my career legacy on the moon," he notes. "I
Hand-built some of the potentiometric transducers incorporated
into the Surveyor, the first instrument package 'soft-landed' on the
moon," he says.
Wallis' creative approach to problem solving and consensus
building had made him an industry star. But it took some
convincing to coax Wallis out of retirement and into the position as
a director of a manufacturing consortium in Fort Walton Beach - the
Technology Coast Manufacturing and Engineering Network.
"I developed the reputation as a turnaround specialist," he admits.
His clients included Tappan Company, Singer Motor Products,
Nichols-Kusan, and the North American Division of Fairchild's
International Manufacturing Group.
Indeed, Wallis was never stovepiped as a cog in a mundane
quality-control role. He held senior-level positions as vice president
and eventually as president of the Nichols-Kusan Company.
When contacted, Wallis had set his mind to kicking back and
moving to the beat of a new drum and working on his novel about
two Civil War soldiers. Eventually, Wallis was offered membership
in the Institute of Senior Professionals, a veritable warehouse of
intellectual capital that works pro bono on community development
projects.
"The quality of life on the Emerald Coast is without equal anywhere
in the United State," he says. "I've lived on all three coasts - in
Texas and across the Midwest and into the Northeast. What we
have is not to be found in any of those areas."
Emerald Coast Magazine; Summer 2003
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