Advisory Council

Don Arends earned an agricultural journalism degree from Iowa State University in 1952, and in 1958, founded his own marketing communications group.

Arends, Inc. is based near Chicago and serves local, regional, national and multi-national corporate clients including Kaiser Aluminum, Canadian Pacific Railway, Lucent Technologies, Philips, and Miner Enterprises, Inc.

Before setting out on his own, Arends worked as an advertising writer, specialist, and advertising coordinator for General Electric. Later, he handled communications for divisions throughout North America for Kaiser Aluminum.

He is also president of a small publishing company called Mission Manuscripts that specializes in historical flying stories, books from World War II and children’s books.

Arends is a member of Sigma Delta Chi and has been active in the International Advertising Association. He served as president of the IAA’s Mid-America Chapter, and conducted workshops on business-to-business communications campaigns worldwide. He earned the James W. Schwartz  award in 1990.

He has served as president of the ISU Foundation and is a lifetime member of the university’s Board of Governors. He was director of Bank One and First Illinois Bank & Trust Company, and was general chairman of the 29th U.S.G.A. Women’s Open Championship when it was held at La Grange Country Club in 1981. He is currently president of the La Quinta, Calif. Historical Society and past president of the Palm Springs Air Museum Volunteer Victory Squadron.