Donald Van de Mark
Donald Van de Mark is the author of The Good Among the Great: 19 Traits of the Most Admirable, Creative and Joyous People (Columbia Island Press, April 2011).
He has been a television reporter and anchorman, Internet entrepreneur and public speaker. Among his television credits, Van de Mark was Executive Producer, Editor and host of two public broadcasting TV series, "Great Entrepreneurs" and "Great Leaders," where he profiled giants of business, including: Andy Grove of Intel, Jack Welch of GE, Martha Stewart, Stephen Covey and many more. These programs can be seen currently through Comcast’s pay per view offerings.
From 1995 to 1999, Van de Mark was instrumental in the launch of the first digital, non-linear television network, CNNfn. There, he co-created and anchored four original television shows: “Washington Unwrapped," “The Media Show," “Biz Buzz” and “Entrepreneurs Only." Van de Mark edited all four shows.
With Terry Keenan, Van de Mark also co-anchored and edited CNNfn’s premier market program, “Street Sweep." Additionally, Van de Mark edited and co-anchored “MoneyWeek” on CNN.
Throughout this time, Van de Mark was also a correspondent and a substitute anchor on “Moneyline." On August 31, 1998 Van de Mark broke the story of Long Term Capital Management’s near collapse; an event that shook global currency, bond and equity markets.
Prior to CNN and CNNFn, Van de Mark moved “off-air” when he made his first foray into the corporate boardroom and the embryonic world of e-Commerce. On August 30, 1993, he chased down QVC Inc.’s Chairman and CEO Barry Diller as he emerged from CNN’s studio. Rebuffed for an interview, Van de Mark nonetheless began a dialogue with Diller that culminated in his joining QVC as Director of Corporate Communications. Reporting directly to the Chairman and CEO, Van de Mark co-wrote with Diller speeches on interactivity and e-Commerce. He managed investor communications and new coverage as QVC made two widely covered takeover attempts: a $10 billion run at Paramount Communications and a scuttled $6.4 billion merger with CBS Inc.
Prior to QVC, Van de Mark spent five years in Washington, DC reporting on the political economy as the National Correspondent for CNBC. Van de Mark launched his career in communications in 1981 at the CBS Broadcast Center in New York City. He became a desk assistant at WCBS-TV News. For there he joined Business Times on ESPN.
Van de Mark has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Tufts University, where he majored in Political Science.
He graduated from St. George’s School in Newport, Rhode Island.
“Not only is there often a right and wrong, but what goes around does come around, Karma exists, chickens do come home to roost, and as my mother, Phyllis, liked to say, “There is always a day of reckoning.” The good among the great understand that every choice we make adds to the strength or weakness of our spirits—ourselves, or to use an old fashioned word for the same idea, our souls. That is every human’s life work: to construct an identity bit by bit, to walk a path step by step, to live a life that is worthy of something higher, lighter, more fulfilling, and maybe even everlasting.”
“Your life is a trajectory. Every choice you make alters that trajectory, in a positive or negative way. Will you categorize that dinner with friends as a business expense? Will you be honest with your daughter? Will you take more credit than you’re due? These are just the small questions that we face every day, and little by little, the answers influence the trajectory of our lives and beings.”
“Good, capable individuals unconsciously and consciously guard and nurture themselves and their spirits every day in all sorts of choices, large and small. Just as their lives are never static, they are rarely if ever fractured. Their morals and ethics are never cut off from the whole of their evolving beings.”