Brian Poe
Encyclopedia
Brian Christopher Poe is an American businessman most commonly known for his pioneering of second chance opportunities for American citizens with a criminal record
Criminal record
A criminal record is a record of a person's criminal history, generally used by potential employers, lenders etc. to assess his or her trustworthiness. The information included in a criminal record varies between countries and even between jurisdictions within a country...

. He is currently the majority shareholder and Chairman of the Board for Corrisoft, LLC.

Early life

Poe was born in Maysville
Maysville, Kentucky
Maysville is a city in and the county seat of Mason County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 8,993 at the 2000 census, making it the fiftieth largest city in Kentucky by population. Maysville is on the Ohio River, northeast of Lexington. It is the principal city of the Maysville...

, Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...

 and was reared in Lexington, Kentucky
Lexington, Kentucky
Lexington is the second-largest city in Kentucky and the 63rd largest in the US. Known as the "Thoroughbred City" and the "Horse Capital of the World", it is located in the heart of Kentucky's Bluegrass region...

. Poe graduated from Lafayette High School
Lafayette High School (Lexington, Kentucky)
Lafayette Senior High School is a public high school located in Lexington, Kentucky's Picadome neighborhood. The school is one of five high schools in the Fayette County Public Schools district. It is among the largest high schools in Kentucky....

 and attended Transylvania University
Transylvania University
Transylvania University is a private, undergraduate liberal arts college in Lexington, Kentucky, United States, affiliated with the Christian Church . The school was founded in 1780. It offers 38 majors, and pre-professional degrees in engineering and accounting...

. Prior to attending college, Poe enlisted in the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

 and served during the first Gulf War
Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...

. He was named Sailor of the Year of Civil Engineering and Sailor of the Quarter of COMNAVBASE Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 242,803 as of the 2010 Census, it is Virginia's second-largest city behind neighboring Virginia Beach....

. He had aspirations of attending the Naval Academy but was denied due to active duty injuries. After four years of service he was medically processed out of the military with an honorable discharge and recognized as a war time veteran.

Career with ex-offenders

Upon realizing that more than 81 million Americans have a criminal record, he wanted to do more to help. He knew there were good people who had made mistakes and paid their dues and that a criminal record was, in effect, a life sentence. Through extensive research he soon realized that all states provide some type of relief from a criminal record. He also discovered that not only does every state have a different form of relief, but the process and form of relief could vary county by county, within the same state.

Poe spent many years traveling and researching the subject; he spoke to experts and court administrators from Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...

 to Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...

, and developed an easy-to-use guide to assist people with the process specific to their court jurisdiction.

After posting The Guide to Expungements and Pardons online, many non-profit and legal aid organizations, as well as hundreds of individuals, began contacting Poe for assistance. The surge of requests brought along the birth of EAS Technologies, a division of Deleo Worldwide, and the website http://www.clearmyrecord.com. Poe hired attorneys and software developers to automate the process for each and every county in the United States. Over ten thousand clients have approached EAS Technologies for assistance, far exceeding any other expungement service or law firm. EAS is also the only online expungement service provider to have federal pardons approved by the President of the United States
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....

. (EAS does not accept applicants with extremely violent records, crimes against children, or acts of sexual violence.)

In November 2008, EAS Technologies re-launched ClearMYrecord.com with a new automated form filling service. This allows the customer to qualify themselves, determine the form of relief for which they are eligible and then fill out and print the forms from their computer. It was built using the CakePHP
CakePHP
CakePHP is an open source web application framework for producing web applications. It is written in PHP, modeled after the concepts of Ruby on Rails, and distributed under the MIT License.-History:...

 framework and was considered so revolutionary that EAS Technologies employees were invited to speak about it at CakeFest, a 3-day event about the framework software.

Due to the incredible demand for expungement services, ClearMYRecord.com has gone to a wholesale strategy by enlisting resellers to take services to a broader reach. With an estimated 25% of the US population burdened with criminal records, millions of individuals may be eligible for these services. ClearMYRecord does not offer legal advice nor positions itself to take the place of an attorney or law firm. It assists ex-offenders in their self-directed efforts to clear the barriers that impede a second chance.

Poe soon realized expunging a record or receiving a pardon was not the final step to fully clearing a criminal record. The courts and the Governor’s offices that grant these approvals do not contact or update the hundreds of commercial and governmental databases that buy and sell criminal records. Thus, even though an individual had a record expunged, it was still publicly available. He became very concerned about these online databases utilized by employers and landlords. Poe realized that much of this data is incorrect or not updated after receipt of an approved order of expungement or pardon (the courts simply cannot contact and ensure that hundreds of databases retain quality data). Poe is also spear heading an effort to enact a Fair Criminal Record Reporting Act on the federal level to ensure citizens rights are protected from the errors and lack of records updating of criminal record data. Currently no oversight agency exists to monitor these database companies.

Through processing thousands of expungement requests it was obvious to Poe that citizens simply had to clear their names to obtain quality employment. To address this need Poe established the organization Hard2Hire. Employers are provided access to a wealth of talent and are also assisted by Hard2Hire in obtaining grants and bonds for the hiring of ex-offenders. Hard2Hire is a free service for job seekers.

Previous career

Upon leaving the military Poe started a small construction company to help pay for college and his newborn son. He offered laborers and subcontractors to large builders for residential and commercial projects. The success of this company led to Poe being named one of the Top 30 Young Entrepreneurs in the South.

Poe took on investment partners and the company evolved into a general contracting firm designing and building residential developments, hotels, restaurants and commercial structures. Poe eventually sold out to his partners who moved the operation to Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...

.

An avid sports fan, Poe visited many recruiting combines for future collegiate athletes. He began writing about prospects online and soon developed a large following. It was not long before Poe was approached by a large sports internet firm to launch his own website and message boards (bigbluenation.com). Poe was instrumental in the evolution of recruit reporting, being the first to showcase high school and junior high highlights of prospective recruits. Popularity of the website eventually led to radio shows with Clear Channel on weeknights, pre- and post game reports and Sunday morning call in shows. Poe also produced a weekly collegiate and high school highlight television show contracted through ESPN2, Fox Sports South, and local CBS affiliates. Poe then established an apparel manufacturing division and assisted in the opening of retail outlets. While networking with collegiate and prep coaching staffs and other recruiting gurus, Poe developed a close relationship with the football coaching staff at the University of Kentucky
University of Kentucky
The University of Kentucky, also known as UK, is a public co-educational university and is one of the state's two land-grant universities, located in Lexington, Kentucky...

. The athletics department was concerned Poe utilized this close relationship to assist the staff in recruiting via his media operations or that the NCAA might see potential violations (the program was on probation at the time). These concerns led to sanctions that crippled the company.

Despite other offers, Poe totally divorced himself from the world of sports and dove deeper into his research of record clearing and providing people a means to a second chance on life.

In the media

On December 10, 2008, Poe appeared on Fox Business News discussing the pardoning of white collar
White-collar worker
The term white-collar worker refers to a person who performs professional, managerial, or administrative work, in contrast with a blue-collar worker, whose job requires manual labor...

 criminals. In particular he discussed the differences between a pardon
Pardon
Clemency means the forgiveness of a crime or the cancellation of the penalty associated with it. It is a general concept that encompasses several related procedures: pardoning, commutation, remission and reprieves...

 and commutation
Commutation of sentence
Commutation of sentence involves the reduction of legal penalties, especially in terms of imprisonment. Unlike a pardon, a commutation does not nullify the conviction and is often conditional. Clemency is a similar term, meaning the lessening of the penalty of the crime without forgiving the crime...

, along with the cases of Conrad Black
Conrad Black
Conrad Moffat Black, Baron Black of Crossharbour, OC, KCSG, PC is a Canadian-born member of the British House of Lords, and a historian, columnist and publisher, who was for a time the third largest newspaper magnate in the world. Lord Black controlled Hollinger International, Inc...

, Bernard Ebbers
Bernard Ebbers
Bernard John "Bernie" Ebbers is a Canadian-born businessman. He co-founded the telecommunications company WorldCom and is a former chief executive officer of that company....

, and Michael Milken
Michael Milken
Michael Robert Milken is an American business magnate, financier, and philanthropist noted for his role in the development of the market for high-yield bonds during the 1970s and 1980s, for his 1990 guilty plea to felony charges for violating US securities laws, and for his funding of medical...

. Poe has also been quoted in most major publications, including the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, New York Times, USA Today, Forbes, Investors Business Daily and many more.

Other work and activities

  • CEO, Founder of Deleo Worldwide LLC, parent company of EAS Technologies, LLC and other technology based companies.
  • Founder of Hard2Hire; a nationwide employment matching service for employers and ex-offenders.
  • Founded a children's organization “kids helping kids” in Lexington, Kentucky. He built a baseball field and provided teams for children who could not afford recreational league fees.
  • Primary sponsor of the 2003 KHSAA State Baseball Championship Games
  • Nominated as a Top 40 Under 40 U.S. CEO by Entrepreneur magazine
  • Top 30 Young Entrepreneurs in the South by Historian Magazine
  • Trustee of the Kentucky State Chamber of Commerce
    Chamber of commerce
    A chamber of commerce is a form of business network, e.g., a local organization of businesses whose goal is to further the interests of businesses. Business owners in towns and cities form these local societies to advocate on behalf of the business community...

  • Bronze Level Trustee of the Lexington Chamber of Commerce
  • Associate Member of the American Bar Association
    American Bar Association
    The American Bar Association , founded August 21, 1878, is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. The ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of academic standards for law schools, and the formulation...

  • Affiliated Supporter of the National Legal Aid and Defender Association
  • Kentucky Hispanic Association
  • NAACP Legal Defense Fund
  • National Urban League
    National Urban League
    The National Urban League , formerly known as the National League on Urban Conditions Among Negroes, is a nonpartisan civil rights organization based in New York City that advocates on behalf of African Americans and against racial discrimination in the United States. It is the oldest and largest...

  • Ex-Offender Programs across the country
  • American Cancer Society
    American Cancer Society
    The American Cancer Society is the "nationwide community-based voluntary health organization" dedicated, in their own words, "to eliminating cancer as a major health problem by preventing cancer, saving lives, and diminishing suffering from cancer, through research, education, advocacy, and...

  • Big Brothers Big Sisters of America
    Big Brothers Big Sisters of America
    Big Brothers Big Sisters of America is a 501 non-profit organization whose mission is to help children reach their potential through professionally supported, one-to-one relationships with mentors that try to have a measurable impact on youth....


External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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