About the Author: Lee Semel

Lee Semel, president and technical director of Innofinity, has been developing and designing projects for the Internet since 1996. An expert in Web interface design, database development, dynamic Web applications, content management, and management of Web software development teams, he has created successful sites for major clients in media, entertainment, finance, e-commerce, museums, and nonprofit organizations.

He has developed many successful projects for major clients. These include the corporate website for PR firm Ruder Finn, a financial site for hedge fund Mezzacappa Management, and complex database-driven sites for Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Goldman Sachs, and Wellspring Media. For the New York Historical Society, he developed an online database system linked to museum kiosks featuring 50,000 objects from the museum's collection.

Lee led web development for Ready.gov, the Department of Homeland Security's terrorism awareness site. Developed in cooperation with the Ad Council and Ruder Finn, it is a high-profile site which receives several million hits daily. He led the development of the database architecture and the secure web application that runs the site.

He has worked as Technical Director on large website projects for Book-of-the-Month Club, Reuters, Cablevision, NY1 and PR firm Burson-Marsteller. For Goldman Sachs he developed the Worldwide Associates Orientation site and the Learning Net online learning portals. For Lifetime Television, he created interactive features and broadband content for the television network's newly launched website.

As Lead Information Architect, he led the redesign of Chase's Metiom enterprise procurement application. He also designed Intuit Quickbooks Purchasing, an expansive e-commerce site encompassing several hundred stores, embedded in Intuit's Quickbooks accounting software.

Lee also specializes in development of online games, including a multiplayer online game for Paramount Pictures, and winner of the Best Game category in the 2003 Flash Forward competition. His first-person 3D shooting game was featured in the New York Times, and was a winner of the 2002 5K Competition for Web Development.

Lee attended Northwestern University and Rutgers University, where he studied Computer Science and Art History, is a member of the New York New Media Association and the New York Software Industry Association, and is on the board of the Web Producers Organization.