MEDIA CONTACT: Pat Vaughan Tremmel at (847) 491-4892 or p-tremmel@northwestern.edu

September 16, 2003

House Speaker Hastert to Speak on Campus

CHICAGO -- House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) will speak at 5 p.m. Monday, Sept. 29, in Lincoln Hall at Northwestern University School of Law, 357 E. Chicago Ave.

Presented by the Brodsky Family Northwestern JD/MBA Fund, the lecture is free and open to the public.

“Leading officials who visit Northwestern to deliver this lecture are instilling in future lawyers and business professionals a better understanding of the important role the government plays in the legal and business worlds,” said William J. Brodsky, CEO of the Chicago Board Options Exchange.

Joan and Bill Brodsky established the fund in 2001 to honor their children who received graduate degrees from Northwestern. Former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Harvey L. Pitt delivered the inaugural lecture in April 2001.

The fund supports the three-year joint JD/MBA program offered by the School of Law and the Kellogg School of Management. The three-year, rather than four-year, JD/MBA degree program is the most integrated of its kind with one application process and a complementary course of study at the School of Law and Kellogg.

Hastert is now serving his third term as Speaker of the House, the third highest elected official in the U.S. government, and his ninth term as the Republican congressman for Illinois’ 14th Congressional District.

He has a reputation of reaching across the aisle to develop bipartisan legislation. Under his leadership, Congress implemented education and election reforms, strengthened Social Security and Medicare, passed significant tax cuts and bolstered national defense. During his second term, Congress passed historic legislation by creating a Department of Homeland Security in response to the tragic attacks that occurred on Sept. 11, 2001.

Hastert’s home district comprises a suburban landscape of high-tech firms, industrial complexes and farmland west of Chicago, which includes the boyhood home of President Ronald Reagan. In 2002, Hastert was re-elected with 74 percent of the overall vote, and he enjoys strong editorial support from the newspapers in the 14th Congressional District.

Prior to Congress, Hastert, who was born in Aurora and grew up in Oswego, served three terms in the Illinois General Assembly. He spent the first 16 years of his career as a government and history teacher at Yorkville High School. In addition to teaching, he coached football and wrestling and led the Yorkville High School Foxes to victory at the 1976 Illinois State Wrestling Championship. Later that year he was named Illinois Coach of the Year.