Topular: team

Topular is built, maintained, and marketed by a team of seasoned professionals led by Andrea Michalek.

Andrea Michalek founded Topular and serves as the company's President. Andrea focuses on creating products and services that bridge the gap between people and technology. The core Topular product line that Andrea developed leverages information harvesting technology to revolutionize how topic-based information can be automatically assembled for use by people searching for relevant information.

A lifelong entrepreneur, Andrea started several companies prior to Topular. Through 1-800-CTO, a consulting company she founded, she provides technology management services to start-ups and growth companies.

She also runs a web services company called Fast PDF as well as started a rapidly growing networking organization for independent contractors called Unit of 1.

She is the former founder and Chief Technologist of EchoFactor, a spin-off division of Infonautics Corporation. Infonautics was an Internet information company acquired by Tucows Inc.

Andrea was an early employee of Infonautics and was responsible for the technology organization as well as new product development.

Prior to joining Infonautics, Andrea was involved in the development of software for medical applications - first with GE and later with Picker International.

Andrea was awarded the "Thirty under 30" award by Philly-Tech Magazine, as one of top thirty individuals under the age of thirty in the Philadelphia area technology market.

Andrea has been a speaker at both academic and industry events focused on information retrieval on the web. She is also a frequent speaker and author on the topics of entrepreneurship, leadership, small business, and women in technology.

She earned a Bachelor of Science in computational biology from Carnegie Mellon University and a Master of Science in computer science from Villanova University.

(updated July 2002)