CEO and founder of City Beat News and the Spectrum Award, Frank Andrews was born on a Poughkeepsie, New York farm where his father was employed. From an early age he showed an insatiable thirst for knowledge and consistent drive to excel. This took him as a scholarship student from a small rural high school to Michigan State University’s new and novel Lyman Briggs College residential interdisciplinary science program. Having sights on becoming one of the early “PhD scientist-astronauts” he encountered the need to re-examine his direction when it became apparent that this was infeasible — his dental fillings and prescription glasses would rule him out in NASA’s applicant screening.
Confronting this reality led to a re-examination of life goals and ultimately to Harvard Law School — quite a change from the young astrophysicist but consistent with a pursuit of excellence. Frank graduated cum laude in 1976, having served on the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review. He practiced law for over 30 years before a second major redirection.
A 2007 epiphany led Frank to redirect focus from legal practice to a means of contributing to more excellence in our tense world, not as much from his own efforts but more from recognizing and promoting the excellence of others. City Beat News and the Spectrum Award seeks to identify and support the growth of customer service excellence and those businesses delivering it, doing so through a platform contributing to more balance and positivism in the world of marketplace reviews.
Where did the idea for City Beat News come from?
City Beat News embodies my mother’s teaching that “if you can’t say something positive don’t say anything at all” while seeking out those small businesses that deliver superior customer experiences — sometimes otherwise little noticed. CBN’s extensive research identifies
