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DSM Staff Adds Member Rich Franks

Rich has been working with various types of information systems since before the PC. During his late middle school and high school years, he was paid to do assembly and dbII programming on various CP/M and later DOS based PCs and to pull wire for primitive serial based networks.

Rich attended Purdue, where after a couple of spins on the roulette wheel of majors, he finally settled into EET with a a minor in CS. During his Purdue years, Rich worked for Duane Mantick as a student employee. Duane still has his student ID. (Dude, it's hilarious.) After leaving DSM, Rich worked for Krannert as a student employee, where he was responsible for PC/Printer repair and network wiring. During this time, he was also working for CD Technologies, a NW Indiana based VAR and systems integrator. At CDT, Rich developed skills in Novell Netware administration as well as SCO Unix and UnixWare. Rich capped his academic career by designing and building a 32 line PBX with two other EET students for their senior design project. (At last check, it was still in use by EET for simulating the real phone network for testing and proving various other student projects.) Rich was also one of the founding members and second chairperson of the Connectivity Club, a student organization dedicated to spreading knowledge of data networking.

Upon graduation, Rich accepted a position at Krannert as the KCC Network Engineer and implemented a couple of Netware servers for the school. After 2.5 years, Rich left for a Project Manager position with the Indianapolis system integration firm CSR (now Sarcom). At CSR, Rich became involved with NT, Cisco routers, switched ethernet, various Internet technologies, and more Netware. Some of Rich's clients included several of the state's top 10 law firms, Conseco, Depauw University, and the Pacers. Rich left CSR for BMG Direct Marketing, one of the "big two" CD clubs. At BMG Rich hired in as a Project leader and left as acting manger of PC and LAN support. Rich decided he would like to return to Purdue. Rich is glad to be back at Purdue, and especially ECN. He looks forward to helping ECN grow.

Apart from being a tremendous geek, Rich consults with various organizations concerning their information systems. He also enjoys spending his spare time with his wife Sharon. Sharon and Rich look forward to starting a family in Lafayette. Other than that, he fishes when he can and makes loud noises with his guitars.

Additional information concerning Rich Franks is available online at:

http://www.ecn.purdue.edu/ECN/About_ECN/Rich_Franks/

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