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Terry Anderson, Founder / Instigator

With a background that includes stints as a ballpark hawker, crisis counselor, bass player and kosher cook, Terry brings a wealth of unrelated experience to any task he approaches. In 1994, after a truncated stab at publishing an interactive magazine, Terry founded e.Media Group, one of Minneapolis' first, ground-breaking interactive agencies. Ten years later, missing the thrill of startup mode, he sold e.Media and has now turned his focus to AKA. His duties include strategic planning, marketing and generally rubbing people the wrong way. He enjoys baseball, music and teaching ESL to his yellow lab, Maggie.

Greg Sharp, Founder / Co-Instigator

Greg comes to AKA as an entrepreneur who has started many successful businesses, including a company that built websites before there were websites. His most recent forays in an ongoing quest for the "next big thing" have included developing software to build community through internet collectives. Here at AKA, Greg partners in strategic decision-making, handles legal and administrative issues and pushes great coders well beyond their limits. His education includes Architecture at the University of Toronto and a perfect 46-year attendance record at the School of Life. For fun he enjoys flying his home-built airplane (he's completely nuts) and dragging people behind a very fast boat.

Jesse Hemingway, Code Herder

Jesse designed the algorithmic logic that makes things work behind the scenes at AKA. Or to put it another way, he built the framework of this house, and now makes sure the plumbing, wiring and central air continue to make it a fabulous place to hang out. Your experience here, and the smoothness of it, is his ongoing concern - that and the beauty and elegance of pure applied logic. Jesse holds a B.A. in Computer Science from the University of Minnesota with a liberal arts focus and will probably wind up as a renowned inventor (of what, no one is sure). He enjoys the music of Leftfield, Orb, Amon Tobin and frequently falls off his motorcycle.

Andre Vieira, Computer, uh, Wizard Guy

Andre brings myriad skills to AKA by way of Brazil, where he earned a B.A. in Computer Science from Mackenzie University in Sao Paulo, followed by post-grad work at George Brown College in Toronto. His experience includes positions at several international interactive firms, where he's done everything from web page design to software development to tech support. At AKA, he coaches everyone in Latin charm and writes the code that connects your AKA account with your personal address book. He enjoys the music of Foo Fighters, fiction of the psychological thriller genre and goofy American movies. He is studying at night to become either a shaman or a clown.

Paul Baranowski, Open code, Open dude

Paul might be taller than the rest of us, but that doesn't stop him from being a darn fine coder. He's also responsible for keeping us open (open standards, open with our feelings, open for business). He's traveled the world developing opensource software for emerging democracies and alternative media revolutionaries. He's lived in all 53 states plus every one of Canada's 10 provinces and 3 territories. And we notice he spends a bit of time in County Dublin, yet when he returns he has a Polish accent. We think that's strange.

Sarah Smith, Community Relations & Tenured Professor of AKAology

Sarah holds about 12 advanced degrees in English and Journalism and is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Minnesota, School of Mass Communications. Before returning to grad school, she worked as a PR professional with Padilla Spear Beardsley in Minneapolis. At AKA, she's responsible for connecting with the AKA community and making sure everyone understands what we do and why we do it. In addition to professional pursuits, she enjoys reading difficult books and cruising websites devoted to Bob Dylan, who she may, or may not, be obsessed with. We're keeping an eye on that.