Rich Excell spent three decades in investment banking and hedge funds, living and working in five countries across Asia, Europe, and the U.S. before “settling down” as a finance professor at the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. In this conversation with host Chris Tidrick, Rich traces how his early motivations were driven by classic pursuits—money, power, prestige—and how he slowly came to realize that his deepest sense of happiness and purpose comes from helping others. Now in his seventh year of teaching and leading multiple academies, he sees his work in the classroom, mentoring students, and serving his community as the most impactful chapter of his career.

Rich walks through his remarkable journey: moving to Japan at the peak of its stock market in 1990, working through Europe’s exchange rate meltdown, the Mexican “tequila crisis,” the Asian financial crisis, the bursting of the tech bubble, the global financial crisis, and finally stepping into academia just in time for COVID. Each seismic disruption forced him to adapt quickly, sharpen his thinking, and build a deep well of experience that he now draws on in his teaching, podcasting, and writing. He talks about how living abroad, raising kids overseas, and repeatedly rebuilding in new places made him more open-minded, adaptable, and less rattled by uncertainty.

The conversation also explores Rich’s personal evolution as a man, husband, and father. Married for over 30 years with three adult children, he reflects on getting engaged in a rush to move to Singapore, raising kids overseas, and the grounding role his family played while working in high-pressure financial environments. Rich and Chris dive into what it means to be a “healthy man” today—finding balance between career, family, faith, and community; resisting the one-dimensional “finance bro” stereotype; and helping young men avoid chasing careers solely for status or money. Rich shares how his students now come to him less for help with class content and more for advice on life choices, values, and career paths—and how his own shift from self-focus to other-focus has been a decades-long journey fueled by faith and hard-earned mistakes.

Rich opens up about his core values, why his favorite emotion is quiet contentment, and how impatience is his biggest struggle. He talks about the golf course as his happy place, but one that constantly teaches him about expectations and resilience. Rich describes male friendship as an extension of family—men who will drop everything for one another—and admits that his greatest vulnerability now is watching his adult children make their own choices without being able to protect them like he once could. He closes by sharing his simple framework for joy and offers encouragement to men who feel lost in a rapidly changing world: start with faith, focus on serving others, and let your own fulfillment follow from there

You can learn more about and connect with this episode’s guest at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richexcellcfa/

ILLUMENATE is a podcast that tells the stories of men with good hearts, open minds, and a desire to make the world better for everyone — not just them and theirs. More info: https://illumenate.substack.com/about