Mr. Richard Jurek, shown in the image with Associate Dean Diane Taub, graduated from Southern Illinois University with a Bachelor of Arts in English in 1989 and a Master of Arts in English, with a concentration in creative writing, in 1991. Fluent in German, he also holds a Masters of International Management degree (MIM) which he earned in 1992 from Schiller International University at Heidelberg, Germany.

Richard has held positions in marketing/market communications in the publishing, insurance, and banking industries. Currently, he is Vice President and Director of Marketing for the Northern Trust Company of Chicago, a $32 billion bank holding company with $1.7 trillion in assets under administration and $338 billion in assets under management.

Richard's non-fiction writing has appeared in publications such as Chicago Life, Internet World, The American Marketing Association's Marketing Research Magazine, Net Guide, Online, Users, and Pensions and Benefits Monitor. His first book of poetry, Human Mechanics, was published in 2000.

In April 1999 Richard returned to SIU as the keynote speaker for English Day. He received the College of Liberal Arts Alumni Achievement Award at the 2000 College of Liberal Arts Alumni Recognition Day and he was also awarded the SIU Foundation's Obelisk Leadership Award in 2000.

Richard lives with his wife Karin and two children in northwest Indiana.