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FARBER
OF PE]INIYIYANIA
t(' ( , rll)- nologies, civil liberties, and the
n , lrit'l' dangers to society posed by rhe
f t . rI t n r l Inte rnet, but have also included Far-
i,::. lrttt ber's comments on restaurants and
l l : , ' :( t ( ) Vacation spots.
pic rrirh "Of all the people associated wirh
that Interesting People distribu-
F\ i\.illia tion program, I'm sure everyone
r. rrlto is would agree there isn't a more inter-
rrll titne, esting person than Dave Farbeq"
1 r ,l t r i d e said Marvin Weinberger, a local
lIx 't tirllt entrepreneur who now runs Inno-
x r rl n u l t i - vation Factory, a toy ar-rd gadget
developer in Havertown.
A'lr.tIton Weinberger said Farber is a lovcr
X'r. the of technology, btrt is remarkably
) t l () t l l i S t , accurate at predicting the pitlzrlls
d thir.rk and abuses it can cause.

ATLAN FRANK
r0n)Plex Earlier in his career, Farber
r lrrrblic helped design the first electror-ric
tr r rllare switch while w()rking at Bell Labs. In
rllt'ts of December 1998, he was a govern- Axrwenfnnrx lNC.
'lltr. lfld ment witness in the antitnlst case
against Microsoft Corp. 'You
ack when he was chieftech- nandez said. rarely find an
has time Although Farber could make nology officer of KPMG individtral who is as innovative and
'r'e
l\i sit- much more money nrnning a con- Peat Marwick, Allan Frank deep in IT as he is, and then can
tlrt'rn on sulting business than educating and said he was enjoying a c()veted also be an eff'ective conveyor of
advising government officials for salary at the peak of his career. those ideas in an executive forum."
r*rinJan- But something compelled him Among other achievements,
.'ralttg as
"Foroneyear,it'sa lot of
arrd scvelal other senior executives Frank was the chief architect of his
il ol sorts fun.Butwith two years, at KPMG to risk everything and start conlpany's award-winning
n finding a new company from scratch. Mind-Share, which is a knowledge-
x ) t l ro n a
youcoutdactuatly The consulting firm tl-reyfound- sharing intranet.
believe
it'srea[." ed in 1997, Ar.rswerThink Inc. of By offering multi-disciplinary
prrrbably Miarni. saw ab<.rut$3ll million in skills to solve complex btrsiness
t'ul FCC "very modest" fees, Farber said he revenues last year and now has problems, AnswerThink has man-
<l he left chose the latter out of a sense of about 1,500 employees. aged to avoid the pitfalls of some of
rllr wash- civic duty. Frank, 46, who is president and the "big high-flyers with big high
"People are trying to make sense CTO of the publicly traded Answer- stock prices that melted down
of'fun," out of the communications busi- Think, was listed as one of the because they created very little
(':r|s,you ness," Farber said. "They go to Ver- world's Premier 100 IT leaders by capability," said Frank, who is head-
, lcal ... izon and get one story and some- Compute rworld magazine last quartered at the firm's Con-
where else and get another story. spring. The winners were chosen shohocken operations. In August,
.urd out- They're tryir.rg to figure out what according to how effectively they the company became the atrchor
. ro lead they should clo." rvelc irl>le to applv itrftrrrlation tenarlt for the Millennium Project, a
<.r'<lnet- Known for his abilitv to ex1>lain teclrnologl to irnplovt' thcir' organ- lnsiness cornplex on thc banks of
:t r-csting the most complicated technolosv in izations. ancl lrorr' innovative theit' the Schuvlkill Rivt'r'.
r n l .s e n d - a way laypeople can understand, approirches rvcle. Ansrr'c'r'Thirtkhclps global com-
lr.rtcatch Farber is prepared for thejob. Ted Fernandez. chiel' executive panies sttclt us ( lt'rtt'ntl Electlic,
r'ibersa "His breadth of knowledge and and chairman of AnswerThink, saicl Nextel ancl Farrrrr \l;re irnprrrle e-
"
, t ipients interest is so great, but he has this Frank's contributions to the firm commerce iurrl otltet tt'chnology-
v'ientists common sensibility to put it all in have revolutionized the way the related business functions. The
rt'ctrtives context, which is why so many peo- company's employees communi- firm's services include benchmark-
o
' .rsked to ple turn to him for advice, including cate with each other and with ing, systems integration, data ware- $
me and the Clinton Administra- clients. housing, e-commerce capabilities, i
' r(-tls On tion," Weinberger said. E "I believe he's one of the truly and marketing and software $
lge tech- great minds in technology," Fer- Continuedon Page 29F
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