[8] White then worked as a research scientist under Douglas McGregor and Mason Haire at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

[10][11] As a principal of the company, White directed more than 200 research and consulting assignments for corporations, government agencies, industry associations, media, universities, and non-profit organizations.

[13] Yankelovich, Skelly, and White would, through a series of acquisitions, become a subsidiary of WPP, one of the world's largest advertising firms, merging in January 2008 with Henley Centre HeadlightVision to form The Futures Company.

"[21] In the interview, White explains: "My work in the nonprofit sector started with a phone call from John D. Rockefeller III in the mid-sixties.

"[22] Between the application of his affable nature and his long-practiced marketing research skills, White's reputation for leadership preceded him: Margaret McNamara, the then wife of the Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara, who wanted to address children's literacy in the United States was recommended by those on Capitol Hill to 'talk to Arthur White'; in 1966 the two co-founded Reading Is Fundamental[23] with the help of then First Lady, Lady Bird Johnson.

Malloy credited White's belief and investment in him with jumpstarting both the governor's professional life as well as his personal one as he met his wife on the job.

Out of the growing success of Jobs for the Future's mission "to drive change in the American workforce and education systems to promote economic advancement for all", then Governor Bill Clinton, asked White to come to Arkansas.

White initially declined opting instead to return to Connecticut "to work in the private sector to develop resources that would make it possible for me to do public service.

White was also appointed in December 1997 by President Bill Clinton to the Federal Prison Industries Commission of which he was elected vice chairman.

[31][7] This position with the Federal Bureau of Prisons allowed White to combine his passion for public service with his longstanding efforts around child literacy through Reading is Fundamental: in 2003 White started CLICC in partnership with Connecticut Appleseed in 2003 with the aim to improve literacy rates among inmates and to help form and maintain meaningful family relationships between any incarcerated parent, their partner, and their children.

Senator Richard Blumenthal described White's lifelong professional efforts and boundless energy: "His career is really about collecting and analyzing information to make it a force for change.