EzGov founder dies in fire

Bryan Mundy, co-founder and chairman of e-government software and services

provider EzGov Inc., died Monday of smoke inhalation in an early morning

fire at his home in Atlanta.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation, but it appears a smoke

alarm failed to alert him because of a dead battery, said Jolene Freeman,

a spokeswoman for the Atlanta Fire Department.

Mundy, 36, and Ed Trimble formed the company in 1999 to create portals for

citizen-to-government transactions, such as paying parking tickets online.

"What we are going to miss most about Bryan is his inspiration, passion

and convictions about e-government," said Trimble, EzGov's president and

chief executive officer.

EzGov offers a full-range of services. It can host agency portals, help

agencies build their own portals, provide software that ties customer-driven

Web applications to back-end agency databases. The company has more than

65 state and local government clients, and is moving into the federal market.

The privately held company has raised $31 million in venture capital and

is close to securing an additional $20 million to $25 million, Trimble said.

While some e-government service providers are experiencing cutbacks, EzGov

has maintained staff levels of about 150, opened offices in Europe and expects

to reach profitability in the first quarter of 2002, Trimble said.

Mundy previously worked as a technology consultant for accounting firm Arthur

Andersen. Most recently, he was chief strategist for InterArch Technologies,

an Atlanta-based company specializing in e-commerce solutions.

Mundy was an avid mountain climber who had scaled five of the tallest peaks

in the world. "We never imagined it would be something like this," Trimble

said, referring to Mundy's death.