Yeah I've been a corpo for over a decade and can't recall any dear fishy emails except when dealing with overseas production in China and Vietnam.

For a printed business letter, put their contact info in the top right, and address them with their title and surname, followed by a colon. For example,

Professor Thorne:

President Kennedy:

Father Milligan:

Ms Helgastottir:

Actually at our workplace most people use dear; because I'm somewhat socially awkward I personally start with good morning.