Katrina Barillova’s Elite Forces Workout
INTERNET COVERAGE

Lycos Network	Wednesday, October 25, 2000
The Spy Who Geeked Me	by John Gartner

Barillova's latest enterprise is as chief operating officer of Charmed Technologies, where she develops wireless communications devices that make being geek chic.

Charmed put together a "Brave New Unwired World" fashion show here at Internet World Fall 2000, where models used the catwalk to show off wireless wearable computers that accessorize well with the fashions of the well-to-do.

The models showed off the latest in sleek cell phones, miniature MP3 players and headset displays -- along with Barillova's prototypes for earrings, necklaces and rings that allow you to show your flesh while hiding your wireless connection.

Barillova's curious road to fashionable-wearables inventor started at the age of 14 when her stellar intellect (she had an IQ of 142 at age 10) garnered the attention of government officials in then-communist Czechoslovakia.

She was placed in a spy training program, where for four years she studied six languages and learned the latest surveillance technologies, all the while keeping up her regular schoolwork.

Barillova said her parents didn't even know about her secret identity -- they read about it in The New York Times years later. Her "cover" while in training was to work as a fashion model.

"Models are not suspected of working in intelligence -- or of having much brain activity at all," Barillova said.

But before Barillova could begin her secret agent career, communism fell apart, so she began working as an "executive protection specialist" or bodyguard. Barillova said she spent several years protecting royalty in the Middle East as well as some Hollywood celebs. Being a statuesque beauty who could unassumingly accompany a sheik's entourage while operating the latest surveillance technologies put her in high demand.

Her training in surveillance technologies and a desire to make wireless communications available to everyone across the globe prompted her decision to launch the wearable technology company. Barillova has always had an interest in fashion, and has been designing her own clothes, so Charmed allows her to combine her passions.

She formed the company with Alex Lightman, an MIT grad who was working in satellite communications, in 1999.

Barillova said that while some wireless devices will always be limited to the well-to-do, she believes that giving people inexpensive devices to stay constantly connected will help the disadvantaged. Barillova recognized that countries like the United States that dominate in communications technology also dominate economically, so all citizens should have that same access.

Now she wants everyone to be able to communicate or search for information anywhere at any time. "The Internet changed the world," Barillova said. "Constant communications will enable people to educate themselves at anytime."

To that end, Barillova is involved with Lincos.Net, which gives Internet access devices to people in Latin America. She would also like to start a technical college in her native country, which has since been renamed Slovakia, because the country has no equivalent to Silicon Valley.