Originally Published in the Daily Herald
May 23, 2005
In 1979, Jody Jankovsky began as a computer consultant, helping to troubleshoot for clients.
He was only 12 years old.
Today, Jankovsky is 37 and president of Naperville-based Black Line Consulting, www.blacklineconsulting.com. The firm provides network and software consulting, set-up, design and maintenance as well as training for small- to mid-size businesses. He has about 100 clients in five states. “We provide strategic chief information officer services for companies that cannot afford their own CIO,” Jankovsky said.
He learned much about computers from his father, George, an architect who also designed software and built computers.
The younger Jankovsky continued to help his father and maintained clients while attending Illinois State University. After graduation, he worked for Arthur Andersen and Greenbrier and Russel, but wanted to return to working directly with customers. In 1993, he started Advocate Consulting, but found the name often was confused with other businesses. He recently changed the company name to Black Line Consulting.
Black Line, which has 14 employees, is seeking to hire two more software developers this year and to establish a satellite office in Chicago by next year.
“We’re ready to move to a new market and establish ourselves further,” he said.