Donald G
Writer #10417
Joined 9/29/2014
4 Star Rating
100% Success
111 Projects
0 Endorsements
3 Elite Skills
Donald is a former professor who taught in two different academic departments--journalism and marketing. During his academic career, he taught courses in communications, advertising, marketing and media. His research centered on business-to-business communications and distribution. He has written journal articles and book chapters.

Donald also spent five years in the marketing department at Jackson National Life Insurance Company in Denver, CO. He started as a contract writer/researcher on a financial services industry project and ended as a corporate communications consultant/copywriter for the company's life insurance and annuity products. He wrote everything from white papers to product brochures to press releases. Most recently, Donald has written a book manuscript that has generated co-publishing contracts from two publishers. He continues to work as a freelance writer.
Education
Marketing
Insurance

Specialties

Donald likes to write about topics that require him to do some secondary research before writing. He likes to write white papers, academic pieces and spiritual articles and editorials. He has experience in writing brochures, ad copy, collateral pieces and sales promotion materials.

Interests

Donald's interests are religion, sports, reading and keeping up with the news. He is not all that concerned with politics, but he has a deep interest in world affairs, especially the Middle East.

Education

University of Illinois at Champaign/Urbana

Donald last two years were the most productive, and contributed most to his GPA. He applied for and was accepted into graduate school.

University of Illinois at Champaign/Urbana

His master's thesis was on the role of advertising in the economic development of Brazil and Mexico. He applied to the doctoral program and was accepted.

University of Illinois at Champaign/Urbana

Donald's dissertation was on the roll of population density and per capita income on the development of mass media in developing countries. He took his first teaching job at the University of Kansas, where he finished his dissertation.

Insurance

60 Projects Completed

Donald assumed senior writer's position and the writing responsibilities for corporate marketing materials, Curian Capital LLC marketing materials and special projects for Dr. Gregory Salsbury, Executive VP of Marketing. In his role as writer, he wrote brochure copy for life insurance products; variable, fixed and indexed annuity products; mutual funds; and, promotional materials for distributors.

Donald also wrote many documents that were distributed internally among the branches of the company. For example, he wrote and edited an annual summary of trends in the financial services industry than was used not only the U.S. offices, but also in the parent company, Prudential, plc, in London, England. He also wrote sections and edited the company's annual report, as well as industry and product white papers. His initial title was Corporate Communications Consultant before he assumed the senior writer's position.

Marketing

40 Projects Completed

Donald's experience in the field of marketing is varied. His experience includes five years in the Marketing Department at Jackson National Life Insurance Company to six months in the Marketing Department of Marilyn Hickey Ministries. He has written marketing plans, product marketing materials such as brochures, advertisements, collateral materials, public relations materials and books promoting products and industries.

One of his marketing projects involved the development of the marketing plan and materials for the launch of Jackson's mutual fund offerings. Jackson National Life had one of the fastest growing variable annuity products in the marketplace. The company wanted to capitalize on its growth by incorporating the same funds underlying the variable annuity into mutual funds. But the company didn't have any mutual funds at that time, so he was given the task of developing the names, the offerings and the marketing materials for the launch of the company's mutual fund offerings. Although the mutual funds did not sell as fast as the variable annuities, they were successful and contributed to the company's profit growth.

Education

11 Projects Completed

Donald taught courses in communications, advertising, marketing and promotion at four major universities during his academic career. At the universities of Kansas and Nebraska, he taught in Schools of Journalism. At the University of Denver and Metropolitan State University of Denver, he taught in the Department of Marketing. His research work centered on business-to-business marketing with an emphasis on distribution and promotion. He also did some research on ethics in business-to-business marketing and the lack of emphasis on developing character in salespeople.

During his academic career, Donald consulted for several companies and industry organizations. For example, he developed research programs and promotional materials for the livestock feedlot association in Nebraska, and developed a marketing program and coursework for the sign industry in the State of Colorado.

 

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