Winona State University graduate Arik Hanson ’96.
By Hannah Jones ‘14
Winona State University graduate Arik Hanson ’96 has been the principal of his own digital communications and public relations company, ACH Communications, for five years. His business is knowing people.
“I was never the guy with a small group of close-knit friends,” he said. “I like to have a large number of loose affiliations and know a ton of people.”
That’s what makes him great at introducing WSU students to potential employers.
Winona State professor Tom Grier has been inviting Hanson to speak to his lecture classes since 2010.
“Michelle (Paulson) Lissick, a WSU alumna and PR professional in the Twin Cities area, worked with Arik on several projects and emailed me suggesting he would be a good guest speaker for PR classes,” said Grier. “I didn’t know Arik. I called and talked with him on the phone and he seemed knowledgeable and genuine, so I invited him to speak to a PR class.”
“That first class visit went well. Arik connected with students, spoke with energy and humility, and offered to help students through his contacts. The students’ class evaluations said many good things about Arik, so I kept asking him back,” said Grier. “Fortunately for me and the students, he keeps saying yes!”
The only thing Hanson gets out of the speaking arrangement is dinner, on Grier, and the satisfaction of knowing he’s doing what he loves and is helping students.
“I think he’s just doing it out of a love for his alma mater,” Grier said. But besides that, Grier attributes Hanson’s involvement with his students to Hanson being, as he put it, a “bona fide guy.”
Hanson remembers he was a fresh, inexperienced graduate himself once. Then he got the right break.
“The woman who invited me to the Public Relations Society of America changed my career,” Hanson said. “One little instance, and your career trajectory is totally different after that.”
It’s remembering where he came from that makes helping students out an easy decision. “People help you, and you pay it forward,” said Hanson.
Hanson’s powerful position as a facilitator gives an added edge to the people he connects. “But the skills to land a job,” Hanson said, “are all on the students.”
Hanson currently serves on the WSU Alumni Board of Directors.
