Hank Asher
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Hank Asher | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | May 9, 1951 Indiana, U.S. |
| Died | January 11, 2013 (aged 61) Boca Raton, Florida, U.S. |
Hank Asher (May 9, 1951 – January 11, 2013)[1] was an American businessman who founded several data fusion and data mining companies that compile information about companies, individuals and their interrelationships from thousands of different electronic databases.[2][3] He was known by industry insiders as "the father of data fusion."[4][5]
Asher dropped out of school at the age of 16 and worked as a draftsman in a local factory. Later he worked in a union job painting radio towers, with a house painting business on the side. Asher moved to Florida to avoid the seasonal shutdown in painting, soon establishing a business painting condominiums on Florida's Gold Coast. By the age of 21, he had 100 painters working for him and was reportedly grossing US$10 million a year.[2]
Career
In 1982 Asher smuggled cocaine while living in the Bahamas over a seven-week stint, flying to Colombia and Belize in his plane. Later he joined F. Lee Bailey and the Drug Enforcement Administration, convincing other Americans in Bahamas to exit the drug trade.[2] "He was never charged with a crime, but a cloud of negative publicity has hung over his head for years, even prompting his resignation from Seisint's board [in 2003]."[6]
Asher touted his new company, TLO which stands for "The Last One" as having 100 times the power of his previous inventions. Development started in 2008, and in May 2011, TLOxp came out of preliminary development. Usage reached over 80,000 Law Enforcement Investigators and over 17,000 commercial accounts.[3]
In 2013, the company Hank Asher founded, TLO, was in bankruptcy court with a claim of liabilities at $109 million.[7] In 2014, TransUnion acquired TLO for $154 million.[8]
Data fusion business
Unemployed, Asher began operating as a freelance computer programmer. In 1992, he started a business Database Technologies that used clusters of PCs to provide parallel supercomputing in place of more expensive mainframes and mini computers. His first contract was a data mining application for the insurance industry performed on records bought from the Florida's Department of Motor Vehicles.
DBT Online bought Asher out for US$147 million in 1999 after the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration suspended their contracts following revelations with Asher's involvements in drug dealing in the Bahamas and concerns that the company could potentially monitor targets of investigations.[2]
Asher blamed his ouster from Database Technologies on board member Kenneth Langone who joined the company at his invitation.[9]
After departing DBT Online, Asher founded Seisint in 1999 by merging two companies.
ChoicePoint Public Records filed a lawsuit against Asher and Seisint in 2001 at Palm Beach County Circuit Court, alleging Seisint stole technology, including source code and computer hardware with the help of one of Asher's employees who was well known fraudster and data hacker Dr. Timothy Klipsic. Asher counter-sued in 2001 in the Fort Lauderdale U.S. District Court alleging unfair business practices by ChoicePoint Director Kenneth Langone and sought more than US$1.6 billion in damages. Both suits were dismissed on March 8, 2005, after ChoicePoint settled with Asher and Klipsic served 18 months in federal state prison.
While at Seisint, Hank Asher played a leading role in developing the Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange (MATRIX) datamining system for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, described as a tool to help state law enforcement officials identify potential terrorists. The MATRIX program was shut down in June 2005 after federal funding was cut in the wake of public concerns over privacy and state surveillance.[10]
Seisint was later sold to Anglo-Dutch publishing giant Reed Elsevier in July 2004, for US$775 million and combined with its own data aggregation subsidiary, LexisNexis.[11] Asher had retained a large stake in the company and said in an interview that he would earn more than $250 million from the sale.[12]
Asher made considerable donations to U.S. political parties and candidates amounting to US$735,000 from 1999 to 2004 including US$505,000 to the Democrats.[2]
Death
Hank Asher died on January 11, 2013, at the age of 61, in his home in Boca Raton, Florida. According to statements from his company, TLO, Asher "died peacefully".[13][14]
Asher's death prompted tributes from law enforcement officials and industry leaders, who praised his technological innovations and philanthropic efforts. John Walsh, host of America's Most Wanted, described Asher as having "single-handedly changed the way law enforcement globally hunts for child predators on the Internet".[13]