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Google picks point person for KC-area Internet project [The Kansas City Star, Mo.](Kansas City Star (MO) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Sept. 13--Google Inc. has chosen Rachel Hack, the head of a Kansas technology trade association, as the chief point person for its plan to bring ultra-fast Internet connections to the Kansas City market. "I'm thrilled," Hack said. "I get to represent one of the greatest companies in the world in my hometown." Hack, 34, will be the community manager for the Google Fiber project, so called because it aims to run fiber optic lines to most homes and businesses in Kansas City, Kan., and Kansas City, Mo. She will move into the job Oct. 3. Google first advertised the position in July, making clear the company was looking for a local person for "outreach to city and state government, the utilities, businesses and organizations." On Monday, the hiring got high marks from Carlos Gomez, the president of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Greater Kansas City. Hack has been active in the organization for at least 12 years and served on its board for three years. "She'll be accessible. She listens. She takes input.... She'll do it right," he said. "She understands the needs of small business." Hack attended Park Hill High School in Kansas City, North, and Truman State University, where she earned a degree in communication science. She went to work at the Kansas City Convention & Visitors Association in 1999 as advertising and promotions coordinator until late 2001, when she became public relations director for the Worlds of Fun amusement park. She left that job in the summer of 2003 to become executive director of the American Advertising Federation of Kansas City. Stacy McCullough, a former president of the ad club, said Hack arrived at a "time of transition" that saw the group occasionally struggle. But McCullough, president of the Tonic advertising agency, said Hack helped boost membership and the involvement of more agencies in the club. "She kind of goes after what she wants and if she steps on somebody's toes to do that, well, it happens," McCullough said. "You're going to see that with anyone who gets things done." In early 2010, Hack let the board of directors of the ad club know she was looking for something else. "I did it for seven years and learned what I could learn," Hack said. When the ad club's board heard she was searching for other work, it set the date to end her tenure rather than wait for her to land another job. But she quickly moved on to the Software and Information Technology Association of Kansas -- her second stint as the one-person staff of a local trade association. She learned Friday that she'd landed the Google job and told the directors of the technology association that she'd be leaving later this month. Former Kansas City, Kan., school superintendent Ray Daniels, a member of an ad hoc committee studying potential uses of the Google Internet hook-ups, said he was pleased to hear the job had been filled. "It's just a good thing that Google will have a local person to get that coordination between them and the people here," he said. "It sounds like a good idea." Hack's sister is Jennifer Hack, the photo director of the Star's weekly publication Ink. Rachel Hack will take over the position that Google described in its ad this summer, but she said in an interview that it wasn't yet clear what her day-to-day work would be like beyond acting as a liaison between Google and sundry groups in Kansas City. The job had been described, however vaguely, in Google's employment listing: "Since our go-to-marketing strategy is grass-roots-focused and dependent on joint programs and events with local partners, you will be the point person on the ground." The executive, the ad said, will develop the "go-to-market template that will be applied more broadly in other markets" -- an indication that Google is looking at becoming a national Internet service provider. Hers may be the only full-time Kansas City job that comes with the highly sought-after Google Fiber project. The California company has been clear that it would do little if any hiring here. Rather, access to super-fast Internet connections priced competitively with conventional service is seen in some quarters as a potentially valuable tool to boost the local economy. Its promise of economically priced 1-gigabit speeds -- meaning uploads and downloads from 10 to 100 times faster than available to most U.S. homes -- has been seen as a challenge to the status quo of telecommunications. Cable companies, especially, have questioned whether Google can profitably deliver such a service. Hack will have at least some adjustment to make working for the Internet search company. She currently carries an iPhone and BlackBerry smartphone, both competitors to mobile gadgets that run on Google's Android operating system. "I guess," she said, "I'll have to learn my way around Android." To reach Scott Canon, call 816-234-4754 or email [email protected]. ___ (c)2011 The Kansas City Star (Kansas City, Mo.) Visit The Kansas City Star (Kansas City, Mo.) at www.kansascity.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |