Ron Arends
Induction Year: 2023
Ron Arrends: March 11, 1945 – October 20, 2021
In 1994, Ron joined Canadian Bank Note Company in the role of President. Working alongside his brother Doug, Ron led CBN’s transformation from a largely domestic security printer to an internationally renowned supplier of the highest quality secure documents and systems to government and commercial clients around the world.
A critical component of the transformation for CBN was the relationship that Ron built and fostered with the Executive team at the Bank of Canada (BoC). In the early days of this relationship, Ron recognized the extent of the BoC’s reliance upon CBN for its security design, research and innovation and manufacturing expertise. CBN’s level of competence led directly to the success that the BoC was able to realize managing the security and supply of Canada’s currency in circulation.
As a true partner in the relationship, Ron led a series of initiatives that directly led to strengthening CBN’s ability
to support the BoC. He invested in the re-vitalization of CBN’s Design Centre Operations recruiting highly skilled resources from several countries. These new members of the CBN team had the knowledge and expertise to propose more innovative and secure designs that better protected Canada’s currency from fraud. He then equipped those creative and skilled resources with leading edge design technologies to augment their individual talents.
The success of CBN’s partnership with the BoC was made possible because Ron made it his business to understand the challenges the BoC faced. He consciously shaped CBN into the supplier the BoC needed to fundamentally change how currency was designed and manufactured for Canada.
Ron believed that to make a difference he needed to get involved in initiatives that mattered. He felt IACA mattered and so he willingly contributed to its evolution with his time, his energy and the resources of CBN.
Ron was a leader who led from the front. He brought an active and strategic mind to any challenge and an innate ability to develop innovative, win-win solutions. He was an inspiration within our industry, an industry that he loved.
Sadly, Ron’s life was cut short. He was both admired and loved within the company and in the industry and is deeply missed.
IACA Currency Hall of Fame Ronald G Arends
