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As a community, non-profit and business leader, Mark Odland has a long-term pattern of success in balancing the goals of his organization with the needs of its employees, constituents, customers, and the communities where they serve. Throughout his professional career, Mark has been a leader who always promotes positive change by challenging the conventional and looking for every opportunity to improve outcomes.

Mark is a graduate of Augustana University with a degree in Political Science and Economics. He completed graduate studies at the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia where he earned a Certificate in Management.

 Throughout his career, he worked tirelessly to identify and develop talented employees, and is proud of the network of leaders he mentored and introduced to leadership opportunities.

 He is most proud of his 50 years of marriage to LaRae and the accomplishments of his sons, Paul, and Peter, who hold leadership positions at State Farm Insurance Companies. Mark and LaRae have five happy healthy grandchildren in Illinois and North Carolina.

Mark has been a member of the South Haven Rotary since 2013 and served as President for two consecutive terms during Rotary Years 2018-2019 and 2019-2020. During he tenure as President, the club grew by over 25%; achieved the Gold Citation; Earned the Every Rotarian Every Year Award (EREY) for contributions to the Rotary Foundation; contributed at the 100% level to the District 6360 Foundation; significantly improved its public image; aggressively pursued social media and press activity; developed successful new fund raising avenues while improving the existing Pancake Breakfast operations; dramatically improved the age and gender diversity of the club, and eliminated many of what was considered  offensive traditions of the club.

The Rotary of South Haven was recognized as the Non-Profit of the Year by the South Haven Chamber of Commerce in 2019. He was named Rotarian of the Year in 2020 and led his club to initiate ZOOM meetings during the pandemic in March 2020. He also hosted a weekly ZOOM coffee hour every Thursday just to keep his club engaged and active.

He serves as Chair of the District 6360 Membership Committee,  member of the Visioning Committee, and as Assistant District Governor for Area 2.