Who we are
Andrea Michalek has a passion for building technology solutions that interface between large amounts of data and the people who use them. Early in her career, Andrea was involved in the development of software for medical applications – first with GE and later with Picker International. During the dot-com boom, she worked with a Philadelphia pioneer in the search engine and e-commerce industry, Infonautics. During that period, she successfully launched dozens of web-based products including Electric Library (an online reference product) and Company Sleuth (a financial website), the firsts of their kind in the industry. Andrea earned a patent for her work there. More recently, she was Director of Technology for the Summon® web-scale discovery service at Serials Solutions. She is also the former founder and Chief Technologist of EchoFactor, a spin-off division of Infonautics.
Andrea was the co-founder and CEO of Plum Analytics, a research metrics company. Plum Analytics was founded in 2012 and was acquired by EBSCO Information Services in 2014. In 2017, Plum Analytics became a part of Elsevier and Andrea served in the role of VP of Research Metrics, Product Management as well as the Managing Director of Plum Analytics.
In 2001, Andrea founded Topular LLC, a consulting practice where she served as an interim technology executive for software companies. Through her consulting, she has helped many startups successfully launch their products.
Andrea was awarded the “Thirty under 30” award in 2001 by Philly-Tech Magazine, as one of the top thirty individuals under the age of 30 in the Philadelphia area technology market. She has been quoted in over a dozen business and technology magazines including Forbes.com, Wall Street Journal College Journal, and Small Business Computing. She has held an adjunct faculty position at the Erivan K. Haub School of Business at Saint Joseph’s University. Andrea earned a Bachelor of Science degree in computational biology from Carnegie Mellon University and a Master of Science in computer science from Villanova University.
Learn more about
Andrea's background
Serial Entrepreneur
Andrea has both founded and operated startups, as well as helped her clients launch dozens of new products. Her last startup Plum Analytics was acquired by EBSCO, then became a part of Elsevier.
Technologist
With a rich background in information harvesting, machine learning, and designing scalable systems, Andrea has led many product and technology teams through successful deliveries.
Analytics Expert
A frequent speaker about analytics, metrics, and scholarly publishing.