Pittsburgh, PA – George Fechter, an accomplished entrepreneur who has advocated for civil rights and social equity for more than half a century, brings his experience to the Anne Frank Center as its newest board member. In his role on the board, Fechter will help to establish new initiatives that reflect the spirit and values of the AFC. Already, he has begun working with community leaders to establish a series of Anne Frank memorial gardens throughout the country.
“The Anne Frank Center is an important program to address growing intolerance and ideological conflicts where absurdities become atrocities,” Fechter says. “I am proud and honored to sit on the board.”
Fechter’s career has in many ways been devoted to developing and serving operations that help others. He has had a part in founding more than 10 companies that, separately, either manage or develop technologies that assist with services such as increasing surgical efficiency, providing virtual tutoring and AI smart toys to students, improving patient care in nursing homes, and predictively applying maintenance to electrical systems. One company he had an active role in establishing—Collaborative Fusion, now named Juvare—provides technology and management services in the area of disaster management in all 50 states and played a major role in the emergency management following the Boston Marathon bombing, where more than 300 victims were treated.
In addition to serving as a board member of the Anne Frank Center, Fechter is also an active board member of Manchester Bidwell Corporation, which provides vocational training for disadvantaged people in 12 U.S. locations as well as one in Israel; the chair of the Eye and Ear Foundation Board; a member of both the Hillman Cancer Institute Board and the University of Pittsburgh Brain Institute Board; a Regent of Concordia College, Bronxville, New York; and a founder of the Life Sciences Greenhouse in Pittsburgh, which is a critical part of the Pittsburgh narrative in converting the Rust Belt manufacturing economy into a knowledge economy.
In addition to his preliminary work on the memorial garden initiative, Fechter is assisting in the development of a plan to raise revenue with integrated community support for AFC educational programming, and looks forward to finding other ways to serve the Pittsburgh community and beyond.
