Chuck Kummeth

Hometown: Glen Ullin, N.D.  |  Area of Study: Electrical Engineering

From pumping gas in western North Dakota to building a major global biotech conglomerate, engineer-turned-CEO attributes leadership preparation to his UND experience.

Charles “Chuck” Kummeth, ’83, was working his summer job at a gas station in Glen Ullin, North Dakota, when a group of travelers pulled up in a convertible, looked around at his small town and surrounding fields, and asked Chuck, “Why do you live here?”

At the time, the high schooler didn’t have a good answer. Forty-one years later after a career in corporate leadership that took him far from rural North Dakota, he now has the perfect answer for the curious convertible crew.

Chuck’s electrical engineering degree from UND helped him land a job at 3M Corporation. Over the span of 24 years, he went from a lab coat to a suit coat, earning his MBA along the way. As vice president of the company’s medical division and an international division director, he expanded 3M’s products and services across the globe.

Chuck spent the last 11 years as CEO of S&P 500 company Bio-Techne Corporation, turning a shrinking company into a leader in the development, research, and manufacturing of life science tools and diagnostics. During his tenure, he oversaw 19 acquisitions, nearly quadrupled its employee count, and grew revenue from $311 million to $1.1 billion.

Chuck acknowledges creating a name in the industry took years of work, building a strong executive team, and overcoming hurdles. “Overhauling the company infrastructure to compete in a modern biology world was the ongoing challenge,” Chuck explained. “The company didn’t even have laptop computers when I started. I bought the first!”

While UND fueled his interest in digital electronics, it also prepared Chuck to become an effective industry leader, but not in the traditional sense. 

“I was a ‘B/C’ student,” Chuck explained. “I loved the schooling but was not a ‘book’ person. The work taught me discipline and focus. The knowledge learned – and mostly not used in years – was more a mental readiness process for me to become a leader.”

The work taught me discipline and focus. The knowledge learned . . . was more a mental readiness process for me to become a leader.

The Alumni Honors is the second prestigious UND award Chuck has received, following his 2009 Engineering Alumni Academy honor. “I never dreamed I could get acknowledgment at this level… I was always the person who assembled the people who could then work together to crack the problem. I could never on my own.”

Chuck and his wife, Angela, give back financially to the College of Engineering & Mines, recently establishing an endowed professorship within the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science to support faculty recruitment and retention incentives.

If given the opportunity, Chuck’s response to the interstate excursionists of his youth would now go something like this: “I’ve always been proud of being from North Dakota. I put it in my speeches and bring it up as I meet people from around the world. I’ve racked up 4.4 million Delta travel miles in my career, but it’s hard to describe the feeling I get every time I cross the border coming back into the state other than ‘home.’”

GET TO KNOW CHUCK

Hometown: Glen Ullin, ND
Area of Study: Electrical Engineering
Memory: “UND Track & Field Coach Frank Zazula protecting me from Basketball Coach Dave Gunther while I practiced my pole vaulting alongside the basketball team in the Hyslop.”
Fun fact (Thank Chuck for your iPhone): During his 3M career, Chuck worked on the first Apple Macintosh project in which 3M supplied the small computer system interface (SCSI) hard disk and tape storage system, “making it a viable computer system,” Chuck explained. His digital integrated circuit chip design served as the brains of the system.
55 trips: Chuck has taken to China on international business (and loves it).