Richard Harnish is the Executive Director of the Midwest High Speed Rail Association (MHSRA), one of the nation's oldest and largest high-speed rail advocacy organizations. Harnish co-founded MHSRA in 1993, became its first executive director in 2001. His quotes and opinion pieces frequently appear in national, Midwest and Illinois media, and he regularly speaks around the country on high-speed rail and railroad infrastructure issues. Harnish sits on the the Civic Advisory Committee for the Chicago Union Station Master Plan Study. He is a member of Governor Quinn’s Advisory Committee to the Illinois Department of Transportation’s feasibility study on a 220-mph high-speed corridor from Chicago to Champaign/Urbana. He is also board member of the National Association of Railroad Passengers. Harnish graduated from Elmhurst College in 1986 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in transportation management. After leaving Elmhurst, Harnish was a logistics manager at American President Lines and JB Hunt and managed industrial real estate in Chicago.