Arnold Donald
Former Chairman & CEO
Merisant
Laureate 2006
Arnold W. Donald grew up in 1960’s New Orleans. Despite racial tension and poverty, his home was faith-filled, strong, and supportive. His parents declared that he could be whatever he wanted to be, contradicting the everyday messages of segregated society, and foreshadowing Mr. Donald’s future. When Arnold entered the seventh grade, desegregation had just begun. Fearful for her son’s safety in a predominantly white school, Mrs. Donald enrolled Arnold in the local parochial school. Through hard work and superior intelligence he qualified for St. Augustine High School - a very selective, all male, African-American institution. His parents sacrificed much to pay his tuition until he was granted a full scholarship. There, under strict tutelage and ceaseless encouragement (the daily school-wide intercom proclaimed, “Create your dream and live it! You are going to run the world!”), Arnold was transformed into a proud “Purple Knight,” and even became one of the first African-Americans to march in the annual Rex Mardi Gras parade. Following St. Augustine’s, Arnold earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Carleton College, then a Bachelor of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Washington University, and finally a Masters of Business Administration in Industrial Business and Finance from the University of Chicago. Ever since then Arnold has been skewing stereotypes and changing lives. At the Monsanto Company, he helped to commercialize the first viable biotech crops, making food and clothing production easier. In 2000, he founded the Merisant Company which produces Equal and Canderel brand sweeteners, helping people who suffer from diabetes and obesity. This passionate concern for others led Arnold to become CEO of the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation on January 2, 2006. Today Arnold W. Donald continues to improve the world through involvement in civic, cultural, and scientific organizations worldwide, most notably the President’s Export Council for International Trade.
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