Former Undefeated Boxer and Author of Duke Got Life Leads Outreach at Engineered Tax Services as Vice President of Community Affairs & Outreach and National Ambassador
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Charles “Duke” Tanner was given a second chance. He is spending that chance opening doors for other people.
Today Tanner serves as Vice President of Community Affairs & Outreach and National Ambassador for Engineered Tax Services (ETS), where he leads national work around second chances, economic empowerment, prison reform, public policy, reentry, and fatherhood. His story is no longer only about survival. It is about service — and about making sure opportunity reaches people who were never handed a map to it.
Tanner’s role at ETS puts him at the intersection of access and advocacy. He helps businesses, nonprofits, municipalities, churches, and returning citizens identify tax incentives, grant resources, and community partnerships that can turn a second chance into a stable future. The work is national in scope and personal in origin. He knows what it means to wait on a door that may never open. He now spends his time opening those doors for someone else.
A Champion’s Path Interrupted
Tanner came out of Gary, Indiana, as a professional light heavyweight with an undefeated 19–0 record. He trained under legendary coach Angelo Dundee and fought on ESPN. The ring gave him structure, visibility, and a name. It also taught him the discipline that would later carry him through a far harder fight.
That path broke in 2004. At 24 years old, Tanner was convicted of a first, non-violent offense and sentenced to two life terms. He served more than 16 years in maximum security. During those years he held onto faith, wrote letters, and refused to let the sentence become the full definition of his life.
His sentence was later commuted. On May 28, 2025, he received a full presidential pardon. Freedom did not arrive as a trophy. It arrived as responsibility.
He did not treat that moment as the end of the story. He treated it as an assignment.
From the Ring to National Advocacy
Tanner is the author of Duke Got Life and a national advocate for people and families impacted by incarceration. The book and the speaking work that followed are not built around celebrity redemption. They are built around a harder question: what happens after a person comes home?
Through his public work, Tanner focuses on creating real pathways — not speeches — for men and women returning from prison, for fathers trying to rebuild households, and for communities that have been locked out of capital, grants, jobs, and policy conversations. He argues that a second chance is incomplete if it ends at the prison gate. Release without work, mentorship, family support, and economic access is not freedom. It is delay.
He works alongside organizations such as the Jack Brewer Foundation, REFORM Alliance, and the Aleph Institute to strengthen families and expand opportunities for individuals and communities affected by the justice system. Those partnerships reach into fatherhood programs, reentry support, public policy, and community-based work designed to keep people from being defined only by the worst day of their lives.
Tanner is also Co-Founder of Legacy Impact Technologies and the Legacy Impact Foundation. Through those platforms, he is extending the same mission with technology, advocacy, and community engagement — building tools and relationships that can move opportunity faster than a single speaking date ever could.
Leading Outreach at Engineered Tax Services
At Engineered Tax Services, Tanner’s mission becomes operational. ETS is a national specialty tax advisory firm that helps businesses, accounting firms, nonprofits, and municipalities access tax incentives, grants, and economic development resources. Tanner’s job is to make sure those resources do not stay inside a closed professional circle.
He works with:
- Small business owners and entrepreneurs who never knew certain credits or grants existed
- Minority-owned, women-owned, and second-chance businesses looking for capital and growth tools
- Nonprofit leaders and churches serving families on the ground
- Municipalities seeking funding for community and infrastructure needs
- Returning citizens who need more than encouragement — they need a path to work and ownership
His role is not ceremonial. It is field work: opening doors, building trust, and translating complicated systems into language people can actually use. Where others see a tax code, Tanner sees a missed chance to keep a business alive, a father employed, or a neighborhood standing.
A Life Defined by Four Words
Tanner’s public work is anchored in a clear standard:
- Opportunity — access to capital, grants, jobs, and tools that were never explained to the people who needed them most
- Redemption — a second chance that includes work, family, and dignity, not just release
- Purpose — using his own story to open doors instead of closing the chapter
- Community Impact — stronger families, stronger neighborhoods, and pathways that last after the cameras leave
“One opportunity can change a life,” Tanner has said. “One life can change countless others. That’s why I believe in second chances. When you invest in redemption, you invest in the future.”
That belief now sits at the center of his national role. He is not asking people to admire a comeback. He is asking institutions, companies, and communities to put resources behind people who are ready to work.
Looking Ahead
As National Ambassador, Tanner continues traveling, speaking, and building partnerships that move opportunity out of closed rooms and into communities. The next chapter is already underway: more access for returning citizens, more support for fathers and families, more policy conversations rooted in lived experience, and more practical doors opened through ETS, Legacy Impact, and the organizations standing with him.
The measure is simple.
Who gets a chance.
Who gets a job.
Who gets to rewrite the ending.
For Tanner, the story was never supposed to stop with his own pardon. The point of a second chance is what a person does with it after the door opens.
About Charles “Duke” Tanner
Charles “Duke” Tanner is Vice President of Community Affairs & Outreach and National Ambassador for Engineered Tax Services. A former professional boxer with an undefeated 19–0 record and author of Duke Got Life, he is a national advocate for second chances, economic empowerment, prison reform, public policy, reentry, and fatherhood. He works with organizations such as the Jack Brewer Foundation, REFORM Alliance, and the Aleph Institute, and is Co-Founder of Legacy Impact Technologies and the Legacy Impact Foundation.
About Engineered Tax Services
Engineered Tax Services is a national specialty tax advisory firm headquartered in West Palm Beach, Florida, providing tax incentives, grant advisory services, and economic development solutions for businesses, nonprofits, and communities.
Credits: The KR Media Group
Media Contact
Company: Engineered Tax Services
Contact Person: Charles “Duke” Tanner |
(E) mail: [email protected]
Website: https://engineeredtaxservices.com
City: West Palm Beach
State: Florida
Country: USA