The idea for 'it's geek-2-me' hit Francis Cleetus on the head on a sultry afternoon in Hong Kong. It was the moment a colleague rushed into his office after seeing a "press any key" message on her desktop and wanted to know where the "any" key was located. Since then he has bumped into hundreds of people who are still trying to cope with their computers. Each character evolved from unique but real people he met at work. Francis lives with his wife Maneesha and two daughters Ananya and Antara in Pittsburgh, PA, USA, and works out of his basement studio in the evenings. He works full-time as a creative director at an independent ad agency located south of the Monongahela River.

Born and raised in Mumbai (formerly Bombay) in mid-western India, Francis started flirting with computers at a very early age. After acquiring a master's degree in chemistry (yes, he admits his three attempts at turning lead to gold were completely unsuccessful), he started his writing career in 1987, as a Staff Reporter with PC World. While dashing across the sub-continent as a journalist hopelessly skewed towards computers, he wrote about emerging technologies, nubile corporations, traumatic mergers and geek prima donnas.

A couple of years later, infected by the creative bug, Francis dived into the deep end of the ad agency gene pool. He joined Foote Cone & Belding as a Copywriter and came face to face with big ideas and his bride-to-be. He has remained fiercely loyal to both since then. In 1993, he decided to tuck his battered notebook under one arm (protesting better half under the other) and elope with Ogilvy & Mather to Hong Kong. On arriving there, he learnt Hong Kong meant "fragrant harbor" in Cantonese. On his first ferry ride he knew it was a glaring misnomer.

Over nine years in Hong Kong, Francis picked up heaps of advertising awards, a smattering of Cantonese and a knee-jerk disorder. After two years at Ogilvy, he continued to work as a Creative Director at J. Walter Thompson and Group Creative Director at D'Arcy Worldwide until he moved to the US. He has created kick-ass ads for Nike Apparel, GE Appliances, Trident Gum,
Maker's Mark Bourbon, Kentucky Tourism, Crest Toothpaste, Western Union and MTV, to name a few (Check them out at franciscleetus.com). But he still hasn't figured out what the F11 key on his laptop is for.