Houston – October 19, 2004 -- Technology For All (TFA) announced today the appointment of Jim Forrest as its Business Development Officer. Mr. Forrest served most recently as the Executive Director of the Houston Area Technology Advancement Center (HATAC). Prior to his services with HATAC, he served twenty-six years in business development with SBC Communications and was the Area Manager for Marketing Management upon his appointment to HATAC.
As a results-oriented executive with extensive experience in developing community relations programs and managing marketing and sales initiatives in the education and industry sectors, Mr. Forrest will initiate and develop business relationships for TFA’s social enterprises. Currently these include JobTech and TFA’s emerging wireless project. JobTech is a three-year $1.4 million collaborative project to initially create 40 livable wage jobs in three low-income Houston neighborhoods. Mr. Forrest will lead the business development efforts of JobTech toward its objective to become a growing and sustainable document conversion and knowledge management business for TFA and its community partners.
Document conversion and knowledge management is a new area of corporate culture partly initiated due to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Potential clients for this service include law firms, healthcare, major corporations, insurance, petrochemical, government and other organizations that require the creation, retention and maintenance of electronic documentation. There is a need for many companies to properly and conveniently retain, manage and maintain these records for future use.
Capitalizing on TFA’s core competency as a recycler and refurbisher of corporate technology assets for redeployment into under-resourced communities, TFA is expanding its capacity through strategic alliances that will benefit corporations replacing technology assets at substantially lower cost with environmental protection, heightened security measures and reduced liability. Mr. Forrest will develop business relationships to expand this opportunity and will also work with TFA’s other social enterprise project, a wireless initiative. Its business objective and mission is to provide affordable broadband wireless Internet access in selected low-income and under-resourced Houston neighborhoods using a sustainable business model. Mr. Forrest will develop and train a sales team of residents from the neighborhoods served by TFA Wireless.
“In announcing this appointment, TFA will move more quickly toward the implementation of our social enterprise strategy designed to empower and employ persons in low-income and under-resourced communities,” said Will Reed, TFA’s Chief Executive Officer. “Houston is extremely fortunate to have someone of Jim’s stature to develop the business relationships required for these efforts.” Jim Forrest is a leader in the Houston area in the fields of education and information technology. He provides community leadership on numerous boards including: Spring ISD, Engineering Advisory Board; Alief ISD, Engineering Advisory Board; HCC System, Workforce Advisory Board; U of H College of Technology, Advisory Board; Pearland ISD, Engineering Advisory Board; Houston Community College, Technology Advisory Board; New/Nuevo Heights, Executive Board; and the Houston Information Technology Empowerment Consortium, Executive Board. Mr. Forrest can be reached at 713.961.0012, x107.
About Technology For All
Technology For All (TFA) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit initiative focused on empowering low-income and underserved communities through the tools of technology. By aggregating and sharing resources TFA is creating educational, economic and personal opportunities for America’s underserved. In the Houston area Technology For All has helped create and develop over 180 community technology centers (CTCs) in collaboration with community-based organizations across the region. Nationally TFA provides supportive services to over 350 individual CTCs in fifty-six U.S. cities. TFA’s administrative office is located at 109 North Post Oak Lane, Suite 425, Houston, Texas 77024, Phone: 713.316.5764 Its program office is located at 2220 Broadway, Houston, Texas 77012, Phone: 713.961.0012.
