Executive Team

John Belizaire/Founder and CEO

John Belizaire is an accomplished enterprise software entrepreneur with a track record of new venture development and management success. Prior to co-founding FirstBest, he was senior director of business development and strategic planning for BEA’s Ecommerce Applications Division, where he grew annual revenue to over $150 million. Before BEA, John co-founded The Theory Center, a leader in Java-based component software for enterprise applications. As CEO, he grew the company from inception to $10 million in revenue. BEA Systems acquired the company in 1999 for over $160 million. He was previously lead architect for Intel’s Digital Enterprise Group, where he was responsible for the industry’s first implementation of network quality-of-service technology for personal computers.

Joseph Pilkerton/Founder and COO

Joseph Pilkerton has over 15 years of experience directing enterprise software development and has held positions in executive management, professional services, and sales. Prior to co-founding FirstBest, he was senior director of professional services and training for BEA Systems, responsible for building the consulting practice and training capacity for BEA’s Ecommerce Applications Division. He came to BEA with the acquisition of The Theory Center, where he was co-founder and executive vice president, professional services. Prior to founding The Theory Center, Joe directed large-scale enterprise application projects for clients such as Hertz, Citibank, Lockheed Martin, and McDonnell Douglas.

Julian Pelenur/Founder and CTO

Julian Pelenur has been at the forefront of enterprise application design and architecture his entire career. Prior to FirstBest, he co-founded and served as Chief Architect of the Theory Center. He led the Theory Center team that developed the industry’s most successful component architecture for ecommerce applications. When BEA Systems acquired Theory Center, he became Chief Architect of BEA’s Weblogic Commerce Server Division.

In the P&C insurance field, Julian has made contributions to underwriting process automation, rules-based decision support, and the application of knowledge management technologies to underwriting. He holds B.S. and Master of Engineering degrees in Computer Science from Cornell University.

Paul Cummings/Vice President of Engineering

Before joining FirstBest as vice president of engineering, Paul Cummings was vice president of software development for the S1 Corporation, where he led the creation of S1’s Enterprise Insurance product line. He led improvements in S1’s development process, achieving CMM Level 3, and managed development of other web-based financial services products. S1 insurance products currently provide Internet transactional capability for the largest P&C insurance company in the U.S. In his 10 years at S1, Paul helped grow the company from a startup to $250 million in revenue. Prior to S1, Paul worked with Digital Equipment Corp., where he directed UNIX Operating System security initiatives, and at MITRE Corp., where he specialized in integrating large-scale intelligence data handling systems for intelligence community customers.

Steve Robins/Director of Marketing

For the last 15 years, Steve Robins has been transforming technology firms into market-leading, customer-focused solution providers. At FirstBest, Steve leads strategy and execution of corporate, product and acquisition marketing. Previously, Steve founded the strategic marketing consultancy, Solution Marketing Strategies as well as the top-rated Solution Marketing Blog. Earlier, Steve established and led the industry and solution marketing function for EMC Documentum. Steve served as VP of product marketing and VP of partner development at KANA Software, a leading CRM software company. Prior to that Steve served as a senior analyst at The Yankee Group, providing strategic consulting, authoring “first reports” on emerging web technologies, and chairing one of the first conferences on corporate portals.

Tony Rosati/Vice President of Business Development

Tony Rosati joined FirstBest with over 20 years of management experience in sales, business development and channel strategy and development. Previously, Tony was with Gensym Corporation as director of worldwide channel development and Asia sales, where he successfully developed and implemented best-in-class channel partner programs that attracted new partners and supported the existing partner channel worldwide, consistently exceeding quota. Prior to Gensym, he was the director of business development for ZipLink, where he was responsible for building the strategic partner channel with companies in the information appliance, wireless, and ASP/value-add sectors. Prior to ZipLink, he was director of product management for PictureTel’s Group Systems Division, where he had direct responsibility for all Group System products, with annual revenues in excess of $250 million. He has also held management positions with AGFA Corp.

John O’Brien/Senior Director, Finance

John O’Brien is a senior financial executive with over a decade of financial and operational experience in technology and investment organizations. He has successfully implemented practices that increased efficiency and profitability in both established companies and start-ups. His experience spans corporate accounting, budgeting and forecasting, operations and financial analysis, debt and equity financing, mergers and acquisitions, and investor relations. Prior to joining FirstBest, John served as controller at Cohesive Technologies, which he guided from start-up to an established firm with annual sales of $15 million, which was then acquired by Thermo Fisher Scientific (TSF). Previously at State Street Bank and Trust Company, he led an accounting team responsible for domestic and international mutual funds.

Frank Medeiros, Senior Director of Professional Services

 

Frank Medeiros brings more than 25 years of experience in enterprise-wide development and integration to his role at FirstBest, where he is responsible for delivering collaborative underwriting solutions to insurers. Before joining FirstBest, Frank was Senior Director of Product Development for S1 Corporation. In this role, he oversaw the development of multi-channel financial-service software for S1’s Insurance and Account Opening products, led the development of the SDK for S1’s core Enterprise Platform, grew and managed a 100-member professional service organization to ensure high-quality on-time releases, and oversaw daily management of S1’s largest clients. Prior to S1, Frank was VP of Product Development for Epsilon Data Management and has also led product development for other leading companies, including CompuServe Data Technologies and Integrated Information Systems. He holds a M.S. degree in Computer Science from Boston University.