Nice, Smart People | Ben Freda Consulting

Ben Freda, Founder

Ben Freda has more than 10 years of experience in web technology. For four years, Ben worked at PICnet, Inc., a firm that specializes in providing Joomla services to nonprofit organizations. After PICnet closed its New York office in 2009, Ben started Ben Freda Consulting, a web consulting shop focusing on solutions using the Joomla, Drupal, and Wordpress content management systems.

Before PICnet, Ben, having attended Columbia Law School with little forethought about how much a real-life legal career might differ from what he'd seen on television shows like Law and Order, worked for two years as a big-firm lawyer in New York City. Prior to that career diversion, he worked at AutoWhiz.com, a web startup.

Jill Seiden, Architect

Jill Seiden has been with BFC from almost the very beginning. Growing up with the dream of being a writer, in college she decided to be more practical and become a book editor. But the creation process never seemed, well, creative enough. Ultimately what she thought she'd find in publishing Jill found in the world of web archiecture: the joy of taking an idea and shaping it into something beautiful.

There is nothing more exciting, more thrilling than seeing a site start as a standard Wordpress, Joomla, or Drupal install and shaping it to perfection. She's realized that much like a good book, a good website is a piece of art that tells a story. And with that she's happily spent the last two years building websites and marketing for BFC. Jill walks you through the planning process, recommends the best CMS based on your needs, and builds out the site. Before joining the staff at BFC, Jill worked for Oxford University Press, Skyhorse Publishing, and the Media Law Resource Center.

Alice Freda, Support Manager

Alice has been working in and around websites since before the days of Facebook and Twitter -- you should have seen her Friendster account. Fancy stuff.

In her days, she's covered all the bases -- from marketing goods online to teenyboppers, to writing specs for big tech projects, to her current role: helping our clients with day-to-day care, maintenance, and feeding of websites. She's fluent in Joomla, Drupal, and Wordpress, and can write a heck of a blog post, to boot.

Arielle DiGiacomo, Web Developer

Arielle joined the Ben Freda Consulting team early in 2012, and now helps to create customized Drupal and Wordpress themes from Photoshop and Illustrator designs using HTML, CSS, and PHP. She came to web development by way of library school, where she was trained in HTML, CSS, Flash, JavaScript and PHP, as well as information management, information visualization, and user experience design and testing. Arielle discovered a surprising knack for web development during her time in graduate school, and enjoys putting together the puzzle of converting designs into working websites.