PEORIA MAGAZINE September 2023

taking a semester of computer classes at Illinois Central College beforehand. “I’ve loved it ever since.” A ‘DISEASE CALLED ENTREPRENEURIALISM’ With a fellow student he started build ing computers. Brian told his friend, “These computers are so good and we got them at such a good price, we could sell these.” That was the birth of what became Facet Technologies, in 1989. After completing his MBA program, Brian was recruited by Caterpillar and worked there 11 years as a programmer, information systems manager for legal services, and program manager. While working at Caterpillar during the day, Brian was growing the com puter business at night. “It got to the point we had 100-plus businesses we were working with. I’m working 50-plus hours a week at Cat, coming home and working 50-plus hours a week at Facet” said Brian. “One day I said I just couldn’t keep doing that.” He concedes it was hard leaving Caterpillar, “but I’ve got this disease called entrepreneurialism.” Annette continued working at OSF until 1992, when she gave birth to Katie, their first-born, and wanted to stay home. “I said that’s great. You can help me with this business. It’s getting to be a lot,” said Brian. AN ALL-STAR TEAM Annette is the Facet vice president. Daughter Ellie is the company’s director

of marketing. Katie is a programmer for Starbucks corporation, working remotely from her home in Peoria Heights. Son Nate lives in Glasford and works for Caterpillar as a contract mechanical engineer. Brian admits that there were some difficult times along the entrepre neurial highway when he didn’t know if they were going to make it. “We’ve been blessed,” he said. Facet has about 25 employees and only three of them have been with the compa ny less than three years. Since the days in the basement — the company now is headquartered at 3024 W Lake Ave. in Peoria — Facet has hired high school and college students. Young employees have gone away to college and one completed a stint in the Marines, choosing to return for a full-time job at Facet. Jason Hahn, Facet’s director of oper ations, started with the company at the age of 16. Facet recently celebrated his 25th year with the company. “There are people working here I’ve known since I was a little kid, because they started working for mom and dad when they were in high school,” said Ellie. Brian credits a lot of Facet’s success to “having a good team that's happy to be here.” THE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE FUTURE Facet Technologies will always be managing customer systems and cybersecurity, Brian maintains. In the coming months, they will expand their software business.

Facet has developed specialty soft ware for clients and for itself. Facet’s own FacetTRACK is designed to help service businesses manage workflow. Later this year, the company will begin to market FacetTRACK nationwide. Another company product awaiting national distribution is Provoptix, a software that monitors tens of thou sands of end points within a system, looking for intrusions or any potential system failures about to occur. The next big thing is Artificial Intel ligence. “We’ve been building AI into a lot of our products for a long time,” said Ellie. “People who’ve been on the vanguard of software development have been using AI for a long time.” “It’s coming of age,” said Brian. “Now we can develop things that are spectac ular. AI can save people and businesses so much time and money.”

Linda Smith Brown is a 37-year veteran of the newspaper industry, retiring as publisher of Times Newspapers in the Peoria area

30 SEPTEMBER 2023 PEORIA MAGAZINE