Palo Alto resident Dexter Dawes tried retirement in 1996 — but it didn’t last long. A few months after retiring, the former investment banker and his wife were welcomed home from their trip to India with a surprise voicemail asking Dawes to jump back into the business world. His youngest son’s friend wanted to start a software company, and he needed someone with proven financial expertise to guide him. Dawes, 60, was ready to take on this new challenging role. That was 20 years ago, and the Palo Alto resident still hasn’t quite retired.
Now in his 80s, Dawes has spent the bulk of his “retirement” years volunteering on numerous boards, commissions and oversight committees to provide financial guidance to local nonprofits. He has served on 17 different boards for corporations as well as organizations benefiting everyone from seniors and children to students and Palo Alto families, including the Palo Alto-Los Altos American Youth Soccer Organization, the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Chorale, the Palo Alto High School Sports Boosters and the Bond Oversight Committee and the Audit and Finance Committee for the Foothill-De Anza Community College District. This month, Dawes is receiving the Avenidas Lifetime of Achievement Award for his service.
Dawes said sitting around watching TV after leaving the corporate world was never an attractive option, so he decided to put his experience to use.
“I think my role is addressing problems,” said Dawes, whose behind-the-scenes input has helped keep numerous organizations financially sound, even during tough times.
Dawes, who served as chairman and vice chairman on Palo Alto’s Utilities Advisory Commission, developed a 10-year efficiency plan that enabled the city to weather the energy crisis of 2001 as well as volatile changes in the gas market, including the bankruptcy of energy supplier Enron Company.
The commission’s decision to reduce its power contract with Enron ultimately saved the city tens of millions of dollars, Dawes said.
As treasurer, chairman and board member of Palo Alto’s Channing House, he helped develop financial guidelines for the retirement community’s development and led what he described as “a battle” to settle more than 10 lawsuits over a construction project that was two years late and whose budget was significantly overrun. When the construction company sued for excess costs, Dawes was ready to shepherd a resolution. The case went into mediation.
After “driving hard with a mediator, who put a lot of pressure on the contractors,” Channing House settled on a favorable basis, he said. The settlement was finally agreed upon on Dawes’ last day as a board member in February 2016.
“All things considered, the fight was worth it for the community,” Dawes said.
Dawes attributes his success in the nonprofit sector to skills — negotiating and good judgment — he acquired during a long and storied career he launched at Ford Aerospace shortly after earning an MBA. By 1973, he had started his own firm that specialized in raising capital, mergers and Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs). During the 1980s, he took over the management of an investment fund and switched from raising capital to investing in private companies.
Looking back on the past 20 years, Dawes said nonprofit work can be just as challenging — and rewarding — as a paid job.
“Palo Alto is an amazing community with intelligent, active and well-heeled people. With these blessings come a fountainhead of ideas and approaches,” he said. “The long and short of it … (is) it can be a stifling process in which it takes years to get a decision made and implemented.
“I don’t know how to solve it except through exceptional leadership.”