John R. Rust established Rust & Associates, Inc. in 1985 to serve the business community with quality executive search consulting services. In August 1993, John's contingent search business was converted to retained search through a temporary affiliation with an international retained executive search firm. Searches have been conducted by John for mid and senior level executives for public, private, domestic and international organizations varying in size from six million to over seven billion in annual sales.

Prior to 1985, John was a Vice President of Sales for a division of Tyco International, a diversified multi-billion dollar company. He held a number of sales and sales management positions, having distinguished himself through his ability to recruit and build sales and sales organizations from the ground up. His career has been further exemplified by the longevity of his recruits and the length of his customer relationships.

John holds a B.S. degree from the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire, an MBA from the University of Denver, and Juris Doctor degree from the American College of Law.

He lived in the Chicago suburb of Libertyville from 1976 until 2004 when he relocated to the Atlanta area with his wife and sons.