1964
Chuck Fried is born in Buffalo, NY.
1965
Geoff Fridd and Laurie (Lawrence) Kochen both start their careers at IBM in Canada.
1968
Geoff leaves IBM to pursue other interests in business. Chuck is beginning nursery school.
1979
Geoff Fridd founds Ascot Computing as a mainframe consultancy, focusing initially on CICS, then later DB2. Chuck enters his second year of high school.
1986
Chuck and his new bride move to Philadelphia, where he will start his career in retail, as an executive at Strawbridge and Clothier.
1987
Chuck’s wife founds a non profit, servicing the women and children of Philadelphia. Chuck will join her one year later.
1990
Ascot Computing files a DBA as CICS/etc, to offer services around IBM’s CICS mainframe transaction management system.
1991
CICS/etc becomes an IBM Business Partner
1992
CICS/etc begins doing business as MQSoft, supporting IBM’s newly released MQ Series. Laurie Kochen, takes an early retirement package offered for the first time, from IBM, having moved up into progressively more senior roles in large systems programming, then sales and management. Chuck leaves his position at the non profit, and starts his first computer company, Blue Rose Computer Systems, making and selling PC based systems.
1994
Laurie Kochen, joins up with Geoff, and MQsoft becomes TxMQ. Laurie buys in as a 50% partner. Chuck moves back to Buffalo, after living and working in Philadelphia since 1986. He opens The Tech Shop, offering small business computer services, leaving the Philadelphia company to his brother-in-law.
1995
At IBM’s urging, Geoff and Laurie launch TxMQ Inc, the US arm of TxMQ, also as 50/50 partners.
1999
The Tech Shop, becomes Andalon.com, a high flying dot com destined to flame out two short years after it’s transition to the new company.
2001
Looking for a US based executive to help with part of TxMQ, Chuck Fried is hired by Geoff and Laurie as a consultant, and later promoted to General Manager.
2004
Chuck buys in as an equal 1/3 partner. Chuck begins a transition away from a 100% mainframe focused venture.
2005
Following their earlier plans to retire, Geoff and Laurie execute an agreement to sell their interest in TxMQ’s US and Canadian operations to Chuck.
2009
TxMQ celebrates 30 years of history dating back to Ascot’s founding in 1979!
