InsideCounsel » July 2006
Sound Choices
Steinway's GC fine-tunes his role as both general counsel and CFO.
Dennis Hanson admits he might be a little crazy to have taken the job of both CFO and GC of Steinway Musical Instruments Inc., the Massachusetts-based makers of what many consider the world's finest pianos. But he be- lieves his craziness is good for his client.
"When you are negotiating business deals, it's a tremendous advan-
tage," Hanson says. "I either actually know what's going on or can bluff my way through it."
Hanson began his career as an auditor for Haskins & Sells (now Deloitte) in 1976. In 1980 he joined Computervision Corp., a high-flying tech company that made CAD software. While working at Com- putervision he earned his law degree at night from Suffolk University in Boston in hopes it would give him a better shot at fulfilling his dream of becoming an FBI agent (it worked, though Hanson decided not to enroll in the academy). When Prime Computer acquired Com-putervision in a hostile takeover, Hanson decided to leave and open a law practice with his wife, who was a prosecutor in Massachusetts. Because Hanson's wife was more interested in offering legal services for free than in acquiring pay- ing clients, the venture was short-lived. In 1988 he closed the practice and took the job of CFO of Steinway, which was at the time a family-owned business. When the company's general counsel left in 1993, Hanson took over. He has served as the GC and CFO ever since, taking the company through multiple acquisitions and an IPO.
Q: You wanted to be an FBI agent,
right?
A: I did. When I first applied I didn't get
in. If you were a white male you didn't
have much of a chance back then. I fi-
nally did get in about nine years later
