About Us

Alen is an artist and designer trapped in a business-driven world. From an early age, he wanted nothing more than to successfully render spaceships, robots and comic book characters. In 1993, after receiving degrees in Industrial Design and Metalsmithing from the University of Michigan School of Art, he started his first consultancy servicing architects and designers with graphic and computer-aided design. In 1995, after receiving a Master's in Education from RISD, he worked for several years as a concept designer and consultant for the gaming and new media industry, contributing to projects for Blizzard Entertainment, Sierra Online and LEGO. During this time, Alen founded ToyboxDX.com, an online community celebrating antique japanese robots of the 70's and 80's that receives over a million visits a month. The robots are "power- objects that have reforged the link to memories of his cross-cultured childhood travels between Jersey and Taiwan." Really.

His primary interest continues to be data-driven user interfaces for education, gaming and publishing. He currently resides on the North Shore with his true love Cheryl, 3 kids, a stray cat, a fat pug and several hundred robot friends.

José manages and oversees all client delivery services and daily business operations at the Factory. He has worked at Thomson/Heinle, Business Lab and Leading Indicator Systems. José brings an international style to the office, having worked as an interpreter during the Olympic games of Barcelona in 1992, attended the University of Paris Jussieu in France and obtained a BA in both English and Spanish. He enjoys soccer, gardening, cooking, playing classical guitar and views his family as his major personal accomplishment.

A graduate from RIT, Alex comes to iFactory having previously worked as a Systems Administrator for both a manufacturing company and a hedge fund. He is a fan of video games, learning new things with computers, and brewing his own beer.

Andrew is a graduate of Belarus State University. Prior to joining iFactory he worked as an engineer for companies such as software giant, IBM. In the Summer of 2008, Andrew moved to the US. Andrew enjoys volleyball, Salsa, and serving as the official iFactory Ski Trip Planner.

Beth has been managing and producing interactive work for over 10 years. She has extensive agency experience, including stints at Hunt and Gather, Hill Holliday and Digitas. She prides herself on her willingness and enthusiasm to take on any challenge. When she is not producing interactive work she can be found hanging out with her amazing husband, attending yoga classes, bike riding, walking her greyhound around Davis Square and chasing her 1 year old around the house.

Carolyn is a loyal New England sports fan who enjoys collecting random knowledge—primarily from non-fiction history books. She's also an incredible user experience designer with a BFA in Communication Design from Carnegie Melon. Before joining the iFactory team, Carolyn worked as an Interaction Designer for InContext Design where she did everything from user research, data analysis, data modeling, creating wireframes, and paper and interaction prototype testing.

Cheryl holds a BS degree in Economics, with a minor in Mathematics from Plymouth State University. Prior to joining Interactive Factory she was at Corey McPherson Nash and Big Blue Dot, where she gained several years of experience developing and managing entertainment and educational products for both print and broadcast. Cheryl has a wide range of knowledge about the elements of multimedia and web site production. Her clients include MIT, Lego, Pearson Education, Addison-Wesley, Reuters NewMedia among others. During the course of a project, Cheryl is an advocate for both the client and Interactive Factory, ensuring that project objectives, quality of work and established scope remain consistent. Cheryl is also responsible for maintaining long term client relationships, as well as forging new ones.

With nearly a decade interactive experience behind him, David has always made it his mission to stay on the leading edge of interactive technology. An expert in DHTML, JAVA and other languages, he works closely with the creative team to develop websites and interactive solutions that function as perfectly as they look. From creating best-case architecture, to recreating a creative design on the web, to ensuring the stability of a web site on various platforms, he makes sure it all comes together flawlessly. David has worked on projects for a broad range of clients, including the National Turkey Federation, Ocean Spray, Pfizer and Boston Acoustics. He holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Brandeis University.

David has over 20 years experience in project management and marketing. A skilled team leader and problem solver, he fosters open communication and collaboration among all parties working on a client engagement. David has been producing websites since 1999. His work over the years includes financial institutions, higher education, manufacturing and non-profit. David has been a Senior Producer with iFactory since 2007.

Dónal, a native of Co. Donegal, Ireland, graduated from the National University of Ireland, Galway with a Bachelor of Engineering in Electronic and Computer Engineering. He then joined a graduate training program with Fidelity Investments, where he earned a Post Graduate Diploma in Web Application Development, before leaving the auld sod behind and transferring to the US. Dónal joined the fun, productive and creative world of iFactory with 5 years of experience in the financial services industry. Outside of software development, Dónal enjoys running, scuba diving, fishing, surfing, (really anything to do with the sea!) and loves reading, especially in the areas of business, technology and philosophy.

In previous incarnations Faun worked as an independent multimedia designer, designing the front-end of websites and creating a variety of printed collateral materials. She previously worked as a User Experience Manager at Integrity Interactive in Waltham, managing a team of user interface designers, and as a User Experience Specialist at Six Red Marbles in Cambridge. Faun oversees and produces functional requirements, wireframes storyboards and use cases, and translates requirements and learning objectives into user-centric design solutions. Prior to her IA role, Faun held such titles as Senior Producer, Web Developer and Interface Designer.

Greg has worn many professional hats over the years and now finds himself happily nested in the world of interactive design. He likes to create things for the computer that move, make noise and respond in interesting ways to user input, as well as coming up with innovative ways of organizing and presenting information. He is fond of using the “wet blanket” approach to coding and if that doesn’t work, he resorts to the elegant and beautifully organized variety. Outside of work, he is seriously involved in painting and playing classical cello. Greg has an MFA in Painting from The Massachusetts College of Art.

Harlan, Solutions Architect, brings an integration of business analysis, technical expertise and customer focus to client engagements at iFactory. Previously, he worked at Intuit as both a software developer and a customer advocate, a Fortune 200 company, web startups, and a firm that provided marketing consulting and printing services to the financial industry. Harlan graduated from Harvey Mudd college with a degree in Engineering and a CS concentration. His favorite activity when not solving problems with technology is to drag his wife and kids on extended journeys through the American Southwest where they complain about all the time he spends taking photographs.

As a member of iFactory's design team, Jeremy is tasked with idea generation, interface design and production for a variety of clients. Rooted in the heritage of graphic design and fluent with technology, his work is known for its creative excellence and attention to usability standards.

Before joining iFactory, Jeremy was the interactive designer at G2G, a small agency in the Boston area focused on work for higher education and cultural institutions. While at G2G, Jeremy designed award-winning projects for clients such as MIT, Boston College, the Baltimore Collegetown Network, Steinway & Sons, Dooney & Bourke and Prentice Hall.

Jeremy received his BFA from the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). He is actively involved with AIGA Boston, serving on the board and managing the chapter's web site, developing it as a destination for the design community of New England.

An avid reader and music fan, Jeremy enjoys spending free time away from the computer, outdoors preferably, and also seeking out little-known corners of art and culture.

After receiving a BS in Physics and Mathematics from the University of Arizona, Jesse spent five years working at start-ups in California doing web development. Before coming to iFactory he took a break from software development to pursue a masters degree in clinical social and worked for two years as a psychotherapist. Jesse was lucky to experience work in two diverse (some would say completely opposite) fields, but his passion for technology has led him back to software engineering.

Jessica is an overachieving jock who forced her hardcore football-loving father to forego Saturdays and Sundays to coach her all boy one girl soccer team so she could play. Competition and winning are trademarks of her youth and her adult life (she even got her father to enjoy soccer!). Jessica's communication strengths stem from her Stonehill College BA and prior work at Sametz Blackstone Associates and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care. She is a true believer in being a part of a team (it's the athlete in her) and of really getting to know people whether they are clients, co-workers, contractors, friends, family, or the guy you see at the bus stop every day. Jessica was the project manager for the development of Oxford Dictionaries Online and Oxford English Dictionary.

Joy first joined iFactory in 2004, departed four years later, and quickly returned upon realizing just how absolutely incredible the Factory—its workers, work, and clients—truly is. As a graduate of MIT where she studied both Computer Science and Music, Joy is both a technician and an artist. She caters to her clients' needs by efficiently and successfully developing ideal solutions. On the artistic side of the coin, after a year of exploring the beautiful country of Japan, Joy acquired a knack for Japanese drumming—she currently performs this powerful and rhythmic art form with Odaiko New England.

Julian is a Sun certified Java Programmer from Bristol, England. He has been coding online solutions since the 1990s and has a bachelors in Law and a Masters in Software Engineering. He spends his free time cooking a mixture of French, Italian, English, Indian, Viet, Korean, Polish and Moroccan dishes. Since coming to the US he's added jambalaya, gumbos, sausage making, New England chowder and, after much longing, the turducken. His other hobbies are guitar playing in fourths tuning, reading, and hunting for edible mushrooms with his wife and fellow cook.

Keagan is a recent graduate of Suffolk University and holds a degree in Theatre Administration. With a flare for professionalism and fun, Keagan uses her management skills to keep the office organized, works to create a friendly environment which fosters creativity and strives to challenge herself to learn new things on a daily basis. When not in the office, Keagan can be found in a theatre working both on and off stage, baking a variety of treats and exploring Boston.

Kerri has been pursuing her passion in art and design ever since she knew her eyes connected to her fingers (and eventually to a mouse). She graduated with a BFA in Graphic Design from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and spent the following five years as a designer at Sametz Blackstone Associates. There she had the opportunity to cultivate classic typography and design skills, learn the complexity of brand identity and grow an obsession with web-design. As an interactive designer at iFactory, Kerri sets out to solve every challenge with energy and excitement striving to bring range, incite and new ideas to our clients.

Beyond Farsnworth Street, Kerri spends nights and weekends at the side of her handsome cat Monster watching foreign film, reading, drawing and sharing coconut sorbet. She continues to play basketball in leagues around the city, rides her single-speed and often visits RI where she spends time with family and friends.

As an Account Executive at iFactory, Lao’s primary focus is to engage prospective customers and work with existing clients in order to match their needs with iFactory’s service offerings. Lao works closely with the iFactory team and her clients to define solutions and to insure that expectations are consistently met or exceeded for each and every engagement. Through her years with iFactory Lao has developed relationships with clients such as the Ad Club, Ford Foundation, Oxford University Press, Theatre Communications Group, Yale Law School and many more. Before taking on the role of Account Executive, Lao previously worked as a Producer at Interactive Factory with clients such as American Institutes for Research for the U.S. Department of Education, Harmonix Music Systems, Harvard Center for Cancer Prevention, Lotus and Mulberry Childcare. Through the years Lao has been an active participant with area organizations such as the Cyber District, MIMC and the Ad Club. Lao has been with Interactive Factory since 1997 and prior to this, worked at Brandeis University’s Office of Academic Affairs and Study Abroad. Lao is currently attending Cambridge College and is working towards a Bachelor’s of Science in Management Studies.

Lisa is a resourceful producer/project manager at iFactory, a compulsive organizer and note-taker. During her many years with Ticketmaster she worked on many internal application development projects including work on the ticketing applications that were used for the Olympic Games in Athens, Greece (in 2004, not 1896). She has worked as a project manager, database administrator, business analyst and has created her fair share of charts of accounts. Not one to say "I should have (fill in the blank) when I had the chance," Lisa has backpacked through Europe, explored the Greek isles, skydived over the north shore of Hawaii and participated in a 200 mile running relay race. She also is a proud parent to her dog, an obedient servant to her cat, and an avid gardener.

Over the past five plus years in the industry, Lisa has worked with a wide range of clients which include higher education, consumer brands, financial, medical, real estate and even non-profit organizations. She started off dabbling in leveraging Social Media outlets including the blogosphere, online communities, and social networks to promote various client services. A few years later she started to focus more on project management and was able to dive more into her organizational, web, and audio/video skills. Lisa has also worn several different hats throughout the years. Most often as a producer, but also as an account manager, HTML developer, designer, website analyst, voiceover artist, blogger, audio/video editor, PowerPoint guru, etc. Lisa graduated from Northeastern University with a BA in Communications with a concentration in Media Studies and a minor in Business.

Lisa came to iFactory with a background in programming, mathematics and woodworking. She likes to think she's the only person ever to get an AA in furniture making after an MA in theoretical mathematics. Blend those skills together and you get someone who loves to craft solutions with everything from drill bits to Drupal. Lisa is involved from the first round of questions designed to probe what a client needs, to the final QA on the built project. One of the best things about her job, she says, is getting to learn about the cool stuff our clients do and the cool web technology that can help them do it. Outside the office Lisa's favorite places to spend time are the beach, her backyard, and scouting out restaurants from cuisines she's never tried before.

As a graduate of Skidmore College, Lori is a marketing communications professional with additional experience in sales, fundraising, and website design and development. Prior to joining iFactory, Lori worked as the Business Development Coordinator at Sametz Blackstone Associates. She has also worked in both Boston and New York at organizations such as Esteé Lauder Corporate, the National Basketball Association, Nortel Networks, and Wellesley College. In her not-so-spare time, Lori teaches dance at the Boston Conservatory, offers her marketing prowess as an independent consultant, and showers her five year old Bichon Frisé with far too much love and attention.

Max started his engineering career back in Belarus, where he graduted with BS in Computer Engineering from University of Information Science and Radiolectronics. At the same time he worked as a Software Engineer for IT outsourcing service provider in Minsk. After moving to the US, Max graduated with BS in Computer Science from University of Massachusetts Boston, and MS in Computer Science from Boston University. Before joining iFactory, Max worked as a Software Engineer at IBM for more than two years.

Marc has worked on projects ranging from back-end transaction processing for a hotel reservation site to on-line diversions for a consumer product launch. He has been doing work for the Web since 1994 and using XML since 1999. He has a BA in Latin from Carleton College and maintains the Web’s canonical site for contemporary Latin poetry. Marc is also interested in puzzles and linguistics.

Marc has recently joined iFactory as the Publishing Account Manager. Prior to iFactory, Marc led Online Business Development for CQ Press, developing online business strategies and products that meet the demands of academic, library, and B2B markets. Prior to joining CQ Press Marc created the World History curriculum for the online education provider Apex Learning. Marc began his career in publishing as an editor for Holt, Rinehart and Winston developing textbooks and supplementals for the secondary social studies market. Marc has a Masters in Social Sciences from the University of Chicago.

A recent graduate of Northeastern University, Matt previously worked at Smarter Travel Media where he discovered and fell in love with the art of System Administration. Occassionally mistaken for Dustin Pedroia (a welcomed error since he's a Red Sox fan), Matt is an avid tea drinker, a big Doctor Who fan, and resides in Mansfield, MA.

Matthew moved from Oxford to Boston to join the iFactory team. Back home, he turned an Oxford University linguistics and modern languages degree into a publishing career at OUP, his language skills only surfacing these days through his love of French food, wine, and the Languedoc. Having worked client-side on the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and Who’s Who, he’s now brought his PRINCE2-qualified project management experience over to iFactory to help steer PubFactory projects. Away from the office he can regularly be found checking out the latest bands at gigs around Boston, or exploring the bike trails of Massachusetts.

Mike is responsible for setting technical direction for the company and providing technical leadership on projects. Mike has an AB from Harvard University and an MS from the MIT Media Laboratory where he concentrated on computer vision and image processing. Before joining Interactive Factory, Mike was Principal Software Engineer at Digital Equipment Corporatio's Cambridge Research Laboratory, where he was responsible for website development and indexing a digital audio/video archive for search and retrieval.

Mike has always had a love for computers and programming. From his first big programming project as a teenager (a space asteroids shooter game)- to his bachelors degree in Computer Science (from Worcester Polytechnic Institute)- to his first software engineering job at eBay, computer science has been a big part of Mike's world. Mike is happy to continue that trend at iFactory. While he loves being a full time software engineer, Mike also keeps himself busy with several other hobbies. When he's not "coding up a storm", you might possibly see him strumming some guitar, singing a capella with friends or juggling in the corridors of the office. If you are especially lucky, you might stumble upon his elusive web comic, Team Stormcast, which he and his brother publish twice a week.

Omar has almost a decade experience producing Web sites. He worked previously at Magic Hour Communications as a Project Manager and was also responsible for managing product development for a proprietary content management system; prior to that he worked for New England Conservatory as the Senior Web Publisher. In his spare time, he can be found in any of the city’s record stores digging for rare and hard-to-find records from almost every genre of music. He is also the pro bono Web manager for Friends of Boston’s Homeless for which his wife Mariann is the Executive Director. Omar and Mariann live in Jamaica Plain with their dog Lucy and cat Squee.

Pete's role is to partner with our clients early in the engagement process to develop interactive strategies that meet their key business objectives, and use their budget resources to greatest effect. He has worked for several interactive firms during the course of his career in roles from strategy to account management to executive management. Pete holds a BA from Brown University. In terms of interest and hobbies, Pete has his own comedy theater troop (since 1999), which explains why he thinks he's funny. His husband, Rick, is an award-winning painter and his dog, Cody, is a Jack Russell terrier with no hobbies or interests despite repeated encouragement to "JUST TRY SOMETHING".

Robert comes to iFactory from west of the Mississippi, having received degrees from Utah Valley State College and Brigham Young University. He has previously worked for UBS Warberg, Campus Life Consulting and Miller Systems.

So Ryan opted to fill out a questionnaire and request that JB fill in his own opinion where applicable. So I get his questionnaire and I thought I would instead give a play by play as I went through it. Ready? Here we go: Hmm... blah blah blah, lots of words and no pictures. "Ryan's a software engineer with no specific specialties or duties". Well, that may be true. We don't really like to be categorized in boxes here. Let's see... he was a programmer/analyst for other companies... did other stuff... worked other places... didn't do anything he felt was of particular note there. Hmm, in high school he "worked for a company that set up inflatable play equipment for kids' parties". Well! That is interesting. How does one get into that business exactly? Do you have to like kids or just the mayhem? Anyhoo, a BS in Mathematics and Computer Science (double major) in NY (wicked smaht) and it was cold there. Blah blah blah, he runs, he's solved the Rubik's cube and he liked Transformers as a kid. Hey! That's great, 'cause way too many people considered Thundercats to be "good" or even "better", but I always thought that even Starscream's long range cannons and missiles would totally decimate almost any Thunderan. Rock on.

Having worked for both a Fortune 500 and an international IT startup company, Scott knows his systems. A graduate of St. Lawrence University with a degree in Math/CS and Physics, Scott is the resident IT administrator for RDW, balancing his time between the agency's three offices. An adamant golfer, Scott even worked at a golf shop while living in Anchorage, Alaska. How's that for teeing up in poor conditions!

In his spare time, Scott enjoys (in no particular order): taking people to Alaska, meat and bacon pizza, his status as office Neo Geo Cup champion, steak pizzaioli from Viga, The Notebook, genadmin time, raindrops on roses and/or whiskers on kittens, Rampart, the Portuguese Rooster, General Chau Chau's, the memory of those who died in a knitting accident, The Urban Sherpa and Big Bear Band, the lady who intones "Mind the Gap" on the Tube and The Economist.

Prior to joining iFactory, Sean was a founding employee and ran sales and strategy for Campus Marketing Services, a profitable alternative channel marketing firm specializing in the youth demographic. Prior to CMS, Sean was a General Manager of TASP International, a management development and consulting firm based in Washington D.C.

Sean has a Masters of Business Administration from Northeastern University and a BA in Economics from St. Mary's College of Maryland. Sean is an avid saltwater fly fisherman and sailor; he owns and races an International 210, a 30 foot one-design keelboat. Sean lives on the South Shore of Boston with his wife and son.

With a focus on consultative client service, Siobhan leads the project management team. She previously worked at Sametz Blackstone as the Director of Client Services and Digital Media. Prior to that she was a financial consultant at both Sullivan Kreiss Financial and AXA Advisors, and worked with a few creative agencies like ZEFER. When not guiding the project management team, Siobhan is a professional classical double bassist and enjoys knitting, kayaking and gardening.

Tara has led engineering and design teams in the execution of client projects from concept to completion for over a decade. Tara has worked on a variety of projects spanning complex web solutions to interactive CDs, for clients such as Oxford University Press, Cengage Learning and Boston's Museum of Science. Tara’s specialty for the past 6 years has been bringing publisher’s print content to the online world. Working with detailed reference content has been a particular passion, from implementing rich search solutions to creating customized content. Tara studied Business at Boston University and Visual and Media Arts at Emerson College, and will forever be deemed an urban dweller and hopes one day for a scooter that can’t be stolen.

As Director of Publishing, Tom is responsible for leading iFactory's efforts in the Publishing space. This has included online projects for OUP, SAGE, Cengage Learning, RR Donnelly, Greenwood, Rosen and Columbia University Press among others. Currently, he is shepherding the launch of PubFactory, iFactory's new mixed content online publishing platform.

Tom has a BA from Harvard and an MA in Computer Science from Brown where he concentrated on 3D graphics. He has worked in the industry for far too long on everything from decision support software, to Disney and Hasbro titles and a real-time strategy game, "Extreme Tactics". When not working on his computer, Tom can be found messing around with boats in the summer and throwing mud in the winter. Spring and Fall have recently been given over to herding girls playing soccer.

Tyler graduated with a degree in the social sciences during the dot com boom and has been working various technical jobs on and off ever since. An Aquarius, he enjoys romantic dinners, foraging and long walks with his wife and pit bull.