Dennis F. Rutledge - CEO, IRD Glass

Benson, Minnesota native Dennis Rutledge brings a wide and varied background to his position as president of IRD Glass.

A U.S. Naval Academy graduate in engineering, former Navy pilot, instructor and Naval Reserve Captain, Denny Rutledge retired from the Navy after 26 years of service.  After leaving active duty, he entered the corporate world in a big way, founding Heartland Components in Alexandria, MN.  He and partner Keith Anderson started Heartland doing engineering, machining and assembly for Fortune 500 companies throughout the upper Midwest. In 1983, they sold Heartland to ITW, the worldwide leader in functional gear inspection and gear burnishing.  About the same time, Denny Rutledge transferred to Chicago to head a defense-related division of ITW, which he managed from 1985 until 1991.

After 6 years in Chicago, Denny was named Vice President and General Manager of a large and progressive West Virginia-based manufacturing company. He took control of a division that was losing $1 million a year and within 2 years had it completely turned around, netting $1 million a year. He also increased sales from $15 million to $50 million with plants in West Virginia, Nebraska and Mexico. This job helped him to hone his entrepreneurial and management skills while formulating a customer-based business philosophy which would eventually become the core of IRD Glass.

In 1997, Mr. Rutledge and two partners purchased Industrial Research and Development, a small glass and ceramics manufacturing company headquartered in Litchfield, Minnesota.  Under Rutledge, IRD has grown to become a recognized force in the manufacturing of optical and industrial glass components, which are used extensively in the machine vision, sensor, medical, pressure transducer, defense, aerospace and process control industries. Denny brings experience, leadership, and manufacturing expertise and good looks to IRD.