Robert White

Robert White (born August 30, 1942) is an American entrepreneur, author, mentor to executives, keynote speaker, and workshop leader. With an experience of almost five decades in the training and human resource development industry, he has founded and led three high-impact experiential learning companies with over 1.3 million graduates from their programs. White is currently the owner of Extraordinary People LLC, was co-founder of LifeSpring Inc., and founder of ARC International Ltd.

Early life and education

White was born in Ravenswood, WV.

He attended the University of Wisconsin and studied at Babson College’s Entrepreneurial Leadership Program under Charles Kiefer and Leonard A. (Len) Schlesinger. He has also attended more than 50 personal, business, and leadership development seminars, including the complete curriculum of the est training, now Landmark Education, plus Strategic Coach.

Career

White was President of Mind Dynamics Inc., a personal growth seminar company, from January 1971 – December 1973. After the death of one of the partners and the retirement of the other partner, he resigned to found Lifespring Inc. in December 1973. After serving as its President, White sold his shares to his team and resigned. He then moved to Tokyo, Japan, and was the founder, Chairman, and CEO of ARC International from 1974-2002, working closely with individual and corporate clients throughout Asia, Australia, South America, Europe, and North America. ARC International graduated over 700,000 participants from its high-impact experiential leadership seminars with White as Chairman and CEO.

White lived and worked from Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Qingyuan, China, for a total of 23 years. He expanded and led ARC companies in Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Guangzhou (mainland China), The Philippines, Singapore, Australia, and the United States. In 1985, White moved to Denver, Colorado, and launched ARC USA, which did culture change work with clients including AT&T, Chase Manhattan Bank (JPMorganChase), Textron, Progressive Insurance, Donna Karan New York, Hong Kong Bank, United Telephone, Waukesha Bearings, Twentieth Century Fox, Duke Energy, and Career Track.

White was honored as a Baden Powell Fellow by The World Scout Foundation in 1984. He was elected a Fellow at The World Business Academy in 1999.

White has served as a vice president of the Instructional Systems Association, vice chairman of the Pacific Basin Economic Council, and was a member of the Board of Governors of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan.

White founded and owns Extraordinary People LLC in 2002, where he serves as a mentor, consultant, author, public speaker, and team leadership trainer.

He has appeared on the Success Pattern Show, Legacy Leadership with Adrian & Tom Chenault, and Maximize your Potential, The Mind, Body Business Show, among others.

Publications

White is the author of Living an Extraordinary Life--Unlocking Your Potential for Success, Joy and Fulfillment (English and Chinese editions). Based on intensive work with people worldwide, the book acknowledges that everyone has what it takes to live a life of fulfillment, success, and abundance if they are willing to take charge of their lives and discover the true meaning of personal responsibility.

White has contributed chapters to A Fuller View (about the life of Buckminster Fuller) and Ordinary Men, Extraordinary Lives: Defining Moments. He also wrote the essays for the pictorial One World One People featuring the photographer Yoshiaki Nagashima.

Nightingale Conant published an audio home-study adaptation of Robert’s core seminar work titled Achieving Extraordinary Success, which won AudioFile Magazine’s Earphones Award for Best Spoken Word Personal Development Program and included his contribution to their fiftieth-anniversary celebration CD along with Tony Robbins, Dennis Waitley, and Brian Tracy.

White was the founder and publisher of nine coffee table pictorial books under the imprint Woodlands Press. The subjects were American National Parks, including Great Smoky Mountains, Going-To-The- Sun (Glacier), Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Yosemite, Olympic, Mount Rainier, and Grand Canyon. He sold the business in 1990.

Social contribution

White co-founded One World, One People Foundations in the USA, Japan, and Hong Kong, non-profit organizations that have donated over one million U.S. dollars to charities doing environmental education and working to end child abuse and neglect. He actively supports the Sarvodaya community development organization in Sri Lanka, The Kempe Center for Child Abuse and Neglect, and The Adoption Exchange. He also serves on the Board of Directors of Plant-It 2020 and previously served on the Board of Directors of the Desmond Tutu Peace Foundation, John Denver’s Windstar Foundation and Jazz Aspen/Snowmass.

Personal life

In 1988, White moved to Aspen, Colorado, and semi-retired for fourteen years. Those years included raising two birth, and two adopted special needs children, skiing and hiking, serving on multiple non-profit boards, traveling the world, and launching his executive coaching practice. He is currently residing in a Western suburb of Denver, Colorado, looking out at his beloved Rocky Mountains.