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| Communicator
Inc CEO, Leo Schlinkert, Named Winner of Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2004® Award |
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Prestigious Award Recognizes Vision, Leadership and Achievement of Metropolitan New York Area’s Most Outstanding Entrepreneurs White Plains, New York—June 24, 2004—Communicator Inc today announced that Leo Schlinkert, Communicator Inc founder and chief executive officer, was named a winner by professional services firm Ernst & Young LLP for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2004 Awards in the Metropolitan New York Area. An independent panel of judges comprised of distinguished local community and business leaders selected Schlinkert for the “Realizing Business Potential” a new category in 2004 sponsored by Microsoft Corporation created to recognize companies with less than 100 employees that have demonstrated success and growth by leveraging computer-related technology. The award was presented at a banquet on June 22, 2004 in New York City. "I am honored to receive this distinguished award on behalf of the highly committed and talented team at Communicator Inc," said Schlinkert. "Few companies are fortunate enough to be able to take an idea and build it into a mission-critical service for Wall Street.” Schlinkert continued, "I am thankful to my co-founders, Steve Lefler, Mary Roddy, Serge Shinkar, Gary Reifman, and Vlad Gilinsky, and our employees and clients that have made us a successful and profitable organization throughout our five year history. Schlinkert added that, “Our success is also due to our growing community of loyal clients including Alliance Capital, Citigroup, Credit Suisse First Boston, FXall, Garban Intercapital, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Miller Tabak, Morgan Stanley, SecuritiesHub, UBS, and Wachovia among others, and partners such as Dow Jones, i-Deal, Market News International, Parlano, Facetime, and IM Logic. We would also like to thank Ernst & Young, Microsoft Corporation and the panel of judges for selecting Communicator Inc as a company that has met their criteria for “… ‘demonstrating excellence and extraordinary success in such areas as innovation, financial performance and personal commitment to their businesses and communities.’” Communicator’s Finance Industry Products and Services Schlinkert and his co-founders, a team that were then Salomon Smith Barney colleagues, started Communicator Inc in 1999. The company is based in White Plains, New York, and currently has 40 employees. Communicator provides a suite of secure software and services that connect broker-dealers with their institutional buy-side clients in real time. The company specializes in identity-based communication solutions that enable people to work together across departments, organizations, locations and time zones—“the extended enterprise.” As early as 1994 while working at Salomon Smith Barney, Schlinkert and his team saw how the Internet was going to change every area of the financial services industry. Since that time, their vision has been a leading force in business electronic communications on Wall Street. As technology moves forward, this vision continues to be a driving force in the electronic marketplace. Communicator’s suite of software and services includes two new products: Hub Connex–a secure messaging, collaboration and content distribution application; and Compliance Hub–a service for financial services firms to manage and securely exchange regulatory compliance information. The company also offers identity management to help meet “know your customer,” Patriot Act and other secure identity requirements; and provides management of multi-enterprise communities. Rather than a “software developer” Schlinkert prefers for Communicator to be thought of similar to a “mall operator.” “We create mission-critical environments and manage secure information channels across companies by only allowing authenticated individuals into those ‘malls’,” said Schlinkert. The innovative mall management concept evolved from situations where Communicator technologists recognized that multiple organizations would benefit by pooling their resources and serving their common customers in online business communities. This type of cross-organization initiative, which closely integrates information distribution, collaboration and identity management, has become a highly successful area of deep experience at Communicator. Schlinkert points out that Communicator’s systems did not
fail on 9/11 or during the Northeast blackout in August 2003.
He credits that to the company’s excellent technology teams.
“We never considered ourselves a dot-com start up, we knew
we had a lot to lose if we did this wrong. Our approach from the
beginning has been to minimize our risk and increase our chance
of success.” He considers the company’s “mission-critical”
approach to working with clients extremely innovative and a clear
differentiator between Communicator and its competitors. The Entrepreneur Of The Year awards program was created and is produced by professional services firm Ernst & Young LLP. As the first award of its kind, Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year recognizes outstanding entrepreneurs who are building and leading dynamic and growing businesses. The program honors entrepreneurs through regional, national and global award programs in over 100 cities and 35 countries. About Ernst & Young Ernst & Young, a global leader in professional services, is committed to restoring the public’s trust in professional services firms and in the quality of financial reporting. Its 103,000 people in more than 140 countries around the globe pursue the highest levels of integrity, quality, and professionalism to provide clients with solutions based on financial, transactional, and risk-management knowledge in Ernst & Young's core services of audit, tax, and transaction advisory services. Further information about Ernst & Young and its approach to a variety of business issues can be found at www.ey.com/perspectives. Ernst & Young refers to all the members of the global Ernst & Young organization. For additional information contact Communicator at www.communicator.com, by calling (914) 872-2800 or email at pr@communicator.com. About Communicator IncCommunicator Inc provides a network for collaboration and content managed services for the financial industry across divisions, organizations, locations and time zones. The company’s identity management, business connectivity/collaboration and information exchange services can be used either individually or combined to create industry-specific solutions for financial services, the public sector and other highly regulated markets. These services include Hub Connex, a secure business connectivity suite combining information distribution, group discussion Forums, enterprise instant messaging and directory services, and the Connex Network, an identity-management-based service to support real-time messaging and information sharing independent of a desktop application. The results are faster collaborative decisions, stronger relationships and reduced operational costs. Communicator is a privately held company headquartered in White Plains, New York. For more information, visit www.communicator.com, call (914) 872-2800 or email pr@communicator.com # # # Hub Connex, Connex Network, and Compliance Hub
are service marks of Communicator Inc. All other company and
product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
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