About Rich Helms

Rich Helms is a seasoned software developer with over 35 years of experience in computer Research and Development (R&D). He spent 22 years in various positions at IBM and two years as the Vice President of R&D for Electronics Workbench in Toronto. From 2000 to 2009, Rich created and owned Rume Interactive Canada, which was sold to Verisk in 2009 and rebranded as Enabl-u Technologies and then Verisk Crime Analytics Canada. Rich ran the Canadian operation since the transfer of ownership until his retirement.

His credentials range from deep technical work (five patents in hardware and software) to running R&D. Former chair IBM Microelectronics Canada Lab Patent Review Board. Rich has created five generations of eLearning platforms. Designed and wrote full-text search engine including crawling support for large-scale case management system. In 2010 co-authored “Amazon SimpleDB Developer Guide” for Packt Publishing.

“It’s never been done” is a call to action for Rich. He has built a career on breaking new grounds in the computer field. In 1986 he developed CARES (Computer Assisted Recovery Enhancement System) for the Metropolitan Toronto Police. CARES was the first computer system in the world for aging missing children.

Playwright

Rich studied play writing and completed the Humber College – School for Writers Post Graduate Certificate. For his thesis Rich wrote an audio drama (think old time radio drama) called After.

After

A murdered young man discovers that a dead hooker can help him make sense of the afterlife, especially when he realizes his killer has followed him into death.

After is an audio drama in which the arrogant protagonist, Todd (murder victim), and criminal antagonist, Dave (murderer), die in the opening scene. Todd enlists the help of a dead hooker to connect with his alive girlfriend, Jessie, while he copes with his new existence, where Dave still threatens him. These characters find themselves in a triangle of adventure as Todd desperately tries to make amends to Jessie for his arrogance.

Play Performances

Plays can be read at the New Play Exchange.