JERRY LINK (Jan 1948)

After graduating from RHS Jerry attended Harris Teachers College and received his teaching degree. He also took courses at Washington University and worked part-time for Anheuser-Busch as a research chemist.  During the Korean War, he served in the Counter Intelligence Corp in Europe.  He traveled to ten or eleven countries and this made him realize he wanted a job in international business.

After getting out of the army, he worked for two chemical companies, Monsanto and Celanese, traveling all over the world.  From 1960 to early 2000, he spent two-thirds of every year on the global road as president of international trading and marketing at Celanese Corporation.  He played a major role in opening up the Chinese market for trade and investment.  After leaving Celanese, he established a consulting firm in Washington and participated in the creation of NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) as a facilitator for the manufacturing industries of Mexico and the USA.  He was a co-author with other academics, including professor Klein (Wharton Business School), of a book on international trade.

Jerry was involved in the reconstruction of the Shakespeare Globe Theater in London.  As a result of his work, he was invested as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth. Jerry’s most rewarding business experience was helping out children’s hospital in Lodz, Poland in the 1980’s, the time of unrest and the Solidarity movement.  There was very little foreign exchange available, so doctors could not obtain supplies to treat newborn babies.  With the help of Jerry’s representative in London, they obtained a truckload of medicines and other essential items and delivered these to the hospital.