Lawrence C. Rafsky

In 1982, Rafsky founded Gemnet, the creator of the FAME (Forecasting Analysis and Modeling Environment) time series database.[8] Rafsky established Gemnet's operations initially in Ann Arbor, Michigan, but was later moved following Citicorp's acquisition of the company. The first version of the software was delivered to Harris Bank in 1983, with a focus on creating a time series-oriented database engine and the 4GL scripting language.[9] This would eventually become known as the FAME model, or Forecasting Analysis and Modeling Environment. In 1984, the company was bought by Citicorp, which led a series of new developments with the FAME program until selling off the unit to private equity firm Warburg Pincus in 1994.[9]

In the 1990s, Rafsky research and management positions at Bell Labs, Citicorp, the IDD Information Services, and ADP. Rafsky worked with future Baidu founder and chief executive officer Robin Li, who helped pioneer early search engine algorithms.[10] IDD, a division of Dow Jones focused on financial news and information's relation to securities pricings. Rafsky partnered with ADP and Townsend-Greenspan, the consulting firm of US economist Alan Greenspan.[11] In 1998, Rafsky founded Gari Software, which he later sold to Wavephore Labs.[12] He subsequently formed Acquire Media, a digital content syndication company in 2001. He retired from full-time work at Acquire Media in 2018, and currently serves the firm part-time doing research in Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, and statistical modeling of the business news ecosystem. [11][13] He also serves as Director of Research for my4, and organization dedicated to investment analytics focused on ESG - Environmental, social and corporate governance.

Rafsky received the Theory and Methods award from the American Statistical Association following his work in the development of the Friedman-Rafsky Test. He was also a finalist for the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA).