Rick Rosenfeld

A native of Baltimore, Rick grew up with a passion for all things geography. By 4th grade, Rick could identify most of the world's countries on a map and name many of their capitals. And he thought international flags were really cool. For extra credit, he even wrote a country profile of Suriname (northern coast of South America, capital Paramaribo).

In 1982, Rick moved to Chicago for college and received both his undergraduate journalism degree (Medill) and graduate business degree (Kellogg) from Northwestern University. But it wasn't until he joined the management team at Rotary International (headquarters for the world's Rotary Clubs) that his geography fire was rekindled. With management responsibility for servicing donors in more than 100 countries, Rick finally began to visit the places that had interested him as a child. His 8-year stint at Rotary concluded with managing registration and hotel bookings for a 22,000 person convention in Melbourne, Australia and a 31,000 person convention in Taipei, Taiwan.

Thinking that non-profit management was not supposed to be the goal of his MBA, Rick shifted into for-profit consulting in 1995 with Chicago's Bricker & Associates. He spent the next four years helping insurance companies streamline their operations . . . but discovered that he was having more fun helping his colleagues plan their vacations. In 1998, Rick tested the waters of group travel by bringing 23 coworkers and friends to Iceland in the middle of winter. Emboldened by that trip's success, Rick launched TravelMBA in 1999.

Since then, Rick has managed the growth of the company that now coordinates more than 75 travel programs around the world each year. Rick lives in suburban Chicago with his wife and daughter.

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