J. Fred Baca Joins Cartifact as CEO

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Cartifact announced today that J. Fred Baca has joined the executive team of Cartifact as CEO. Mr. Baca’s leadership, management and marketing skills will provide a solid basis for Cartifact’s accelerated development as a major player in the areas of web and mobile mapping, worldwide.

“I am thrilled to welcome Fred to our diverse and talented team,” says Graham Marriott, President of Cartifact. “Fred’s depth of knowledge in the fields of data mining and cartography will be a vital ingredient in our growth and expansion into new markets.”

Prior to joining Cartifact, Baca was President of Colliers International in Houston, Texas (2001 – 2009). Within 8 years, under Baca’s leadership, the company grew fourfold in revenue; more than doubled its size to include over 40 brokers and emerged as a dominant multidiscipline commercial brokerage house in the highly competitive Houston market.

In the 1990s Mr. Baca, as Baca Landata, a co venture with Houston based Stewart Title Company, purchased both the Wilson Maps and Zingerey Map Company, making Baca the sole provider of Houston parcel and ownership mapping services. Baca Landata developed the first Internet “smart” map of The Greater Houston Area and the first Internet distributed GIS mapping product for the Harris County Appraisal District. Baca Landata also created the first public record back end to the MLS system allowing Houston area Realtors to instantly research over 2.5 million properties via their proprietary listing tool.

For the past 20 years, Mr. Baca has been a principal and Director of Court Record Research, specializing in nationwide public record searches, document retrieval and process service.

Other business ventures include: Founder and CEO of Baca Publications, Inc. (1971-1988), a publisher of commercial real estate data (office/multifamily), including sales, inventory, and foreclosures; Founder, President and CEO of Baca Landata (1988–1999), an electronic Real Estate Information service provider; and Founder and Owner of Baca Information Group (1999–2000), a provider of commercial lease space data and Court Records Research housed within the Harris County Courthouse.

ABOUT CARTIFACT: Cartifact recently redesigned the MapQuest online map system that combines rich cartography with the artistic blending of vegetation and shaded relief covering North America with a worldwide rollout in the coming months. Previously, Cartifact redesigned Yahoo! Maps and has for many years been the exclusive provider of premium maps for major international financial institutions, hotels and government agencies. Cartifact has been retained to provide interactive web-based mapping portals for the Community Redevelopment Agency of Los Angeles and CB Richard Ellis, New York.

Cartifact has won numerous design awards that are widely admired for their beauty and elegant presentation of information. Every map is designed to serve the client's needs – strategically, aesthetically, and in the selection of and focus on significant information.

Cartifact also explores and creates new mapmaking methods and tools, and has become known as a leading source of cartographic technology and expertise. A blend of disciplines – design, technology and communication – makes Cartifact, and its processes and products, unique.