Edward Frank is uneasy. It’s not about his new role as chair of Inspire Innovation: The Campaign for Carnegie Mellon University. At the moment, he's concerned about a panel he’s been asked to moderate. It's certainly not that he’s afraid of public speaking—been there, done that. It's not that he isn't enthusiastic about the event—it's sponsored by his alma mater for the Silicon Valley campus he himself helped establish. And it's not that the subject matter doesn’t interest him, because it does.
It’s quite simply the thought of trying to attract—and entertain—a roomful of people at 7 p.m. on a balmy Saturday night in Mountain View, Calif. After all, they could be attending a concert at the Shoreline Amphitheatre, hiking with the majestic Santa Cruz Mountains in the background, or dipping their toes in the Pacific Ocean surf. For those who show up, he knows he owes it to them to deliver.
The university is counting on Frank—more than just as a panel discussion moderator. Yet, as he succeeds Ray Lane [see A Father's Legacy] as the chair of the $1 billion Inspire Innovation campaign, he says that he isn't intimidated by the challenge before him because of what he calls a basic tenet: Universities such as Carnegie Mellon are the country's "greatest resource" by far—and that's a message he’s confident will reverberate with alumni and friends of the university everywhere. As a for-instance, he describes how Carnegie Mellon helped define, and continually redefines, the field of computer science: "If you want to get something that changes the way the world works, invest in universities."
He knows, though, that he’s up against some obstacles in his new role—like the current volatile state of the economy, for one. But that doesn’t rattle him. He believes that the recession won’t stop donors from giving; it just may change the timing of their gifts. He’s strongly focused on the big picture, and the big picture, to him, is about participation and long-term relationships in addition to writing checks. "We’re not only asking for money," he points out, "We want your thoughts and ideas—your involvement."
Involvement is something Frank (CS'85) knows about firsthand. Several years ago, he was invited to become a life member of the university’s Board of Trustees. He said yes; when it comes to the university, he has been saying yes ever since, which includes agreeing to host the Silicon Valley panel discussion. Frank will moderate a panel on the intersection of art and technology, as part of a larger event that’s being held for the university's West Coast friends and alums; it’s a subject that resonates with him.
Some might say he's living proof—quite literally—that you can successfully marry technology with art. Frank, a vice president at Apple, co-founded the company, Epigram, that Broadcom acquired in 1999 on its way to becoming the world’s leading WiFi vendor. Prior to that, he worked at Sun Microsystems and worked on a project out of which sprung the Java programming language. A named inventor on more than 40 U.S. patents, he has had a hand in many of the advances in computing and technology we now count as part of our daily lives. From an arts perspective, he's married to Sarah Ratchye (A'82), a juried artist who has exhibited widely. She’s a painter and sculptor who works in oil, watercolor, and mixed media. Their daughters’ interests involve the arts, too. Whitton earned a degree in drama and English from Carnegie Mellon in 2006 and is an actress in Los Angeles; Naomi is an artist who paints portraits in oil. The family home displays more than 200 works of art, ranging from classical to contemporary, from pop surrealist to technology-based art.
It hasn't escaped Frank that the blend of technology and the arts in his life is particularly poignant when it comes to Carnegie Mellon. "What makes Carnegie Mellon interesting," he says, "is that on one hand, we have people creating technology, and on the other hand, we have people creating art."
For him, it makes the panel he will moderate so interesting—finding where art and technology meet. He gets to the museum a half hour early to work out some technical details and meet with the panelists, including Richard Hilleman, creative director of Electronic Arts (maker of popular games such as Rock Band), and Ralph Guggenheim (HS'74, S'79), who is a founding member of Pixar Animation Studios (of Toy Story fame). Also on the panel are noted Carnegie Mellon faculty members Golan Levin and Jessica Trybus. A few minutes before the start of the program, Frank checks out the audience. The crowd is 500 strong. Guess this is the place to be on a Saturday night, after all. Frank steps up to the podium to speak.
"If you look back millions of years ago at how humanity evolved, it seems that there are two things that human beings did that make us uniquely human." Frank pauses, looks out at the attentive faces, then continues. "We develop technology, to help us hunt and help us eat, and that makes a lot of sense; but then we do this other thing...we make art."
After he finishes his opening comments, he moderates the panel discussion. It's a lively conversation, concluding with enthusiastic applause. As the evening draws to a close, Frank is at ease.
Elizabeth May, a Pittsburgh-based freelance writer, is a regular contributor to this magazine.
