In the News

Reprinted with permission from East Bay Business Times

On the Move

August 25, 2000 - When Paul J.J. Payack walked into his Russian class at Pennsylvania's Bucknell University, little did he know his future business partner would be standing in front of the class.

In 1995, while head of the linguistics department, Professor Robert Beard created a word index for the linguistic community called the Web of online dictionaries.

Last month, that site was relaunched as Danville-based http://www.yourdictionary.com and Beard's former student, Payack, is the company's president and chief executive officer.

Payack, a former vice president of worldwide marketing at Legato Systems Inc. in Palo Alto, joined the company because he saw the chance to build it into a powerful commercial site.

"(Beard) knew that it was a great idea but didn't really know how to get it to a wide audience. My skills enable us to get the site to a wider audience base," Payack said.

He is excited about what he gets to do.

"In this position, I have the chance to work with one of the world's greatest Web portals, which already has a built-in brand equity and audience. We have over 230 languages and 1,800 dictionaries available to visitors. We are the premier global portal for languages on the Web. No one has the depth or breadth of information we offer."

©2001 East Bay Business Times