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The Internet can make even a backyard patio become an entrance to a larger world, so who better to work online than an international affairs major. Rick Klau ’93 also majored in French, but he has been speaking business for the past year with FeedBurner and local politics since 2002.
FeedBurner is an Internet company that manages RSS (“really simple syndication”) feeds, providing publishers with information about their news feed circulation and usage and managing the advertising in those feeds. Klau’s role is to bring publishers into the company’s network.
At Lafayette, Klau lived in Watson Hall, one of the first residence halls to have a network connection for all students.
“Even though I was a liberal arts major, I was hooked,” he says.
That hook dug in deeper in law school at Richmond University, where he founded a law journal that he says was the first to publish exclusively online.
“I knew well before graduating that I’d be making my career in technology, and chose classes that would help provide as rounded a business background as possible,” he says.
An accomplished public speaker, moderator, panelist, and author of a popular blog, Klau has received extensive coverage in a variety of major media publications throughout his career, including The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, CIO, InfoWorld, Inc. Magazine, Internet World, The Washington Post and more. He has published a number of books and columns covering the topics of technology, law, ecommerce, and online security.
An interest in politics also was nurtured during his college days.
“At Lafayette, we were always encouraged to speak up and ask questions,” says Klau, who was concerned with the jailings in 2002 of prisoners associated with the war on terror without legal representation. “I felt this was not how the United States should act when confronted with a very real crisis. Rather than get frustrated, I spoke up.”
He called up the Howard Dean campaign, which had only one paid staffer at the time, and worked on his campaign. The candidate later encouraged him to get involved locally in Klau’s new home of Naperville, Ill.
“While the national politics get the most coverage, it’s the local issues — school funding, transportation, taxes — that affect most of us every day,” he says.
Klau lost his campaign, but he remains the Democratic Party chair in Naperville. “I’ve never had a burning desire to be a politician per se, but am quite interested in understanding how decisions at all levels of government affect people in their day-to-day lives,” says Klau, who earneda JD from University of Richmond School of Law and a Baccalaureate Degree from l’Université de Bourgogne.
Lafayette professors like Jean-Pierre Cap, Andy Fix, and Dirk van Raemdonck taught him to be curious, ask questions, and be passionate about what was important.
“Lafayette taught me how to see beyond my surroundings,” he says. “Through the Newman Center I volunteered at a homeless shelter. My year abroad exposed me to countries and cultures I’d studied but never understood. By seeing the bigger picture, my own set of priorities became much clearer. Perhaps most importantly, Lafayette gave me confidence to take what mattered to me and get active.”
With a career, two sons and a third child due this month, and community involvement, life remains actively busy for Klau, but he says it doesn’t feel like juggling.
“These are all things that are important to me,” he says. “My job makes my time with them possible, and my political and community interests make the town I live in seem like the ideal place to raise a family. All are worth the time spent, and I’ve never felt like I’ve had to sacrifice to find the time.”