Executive Team

John Belizaire/Founder and CEO

John Belizaire is an accomplished enterprise software visionary and entrepreneur. He has a proven track record of new venture development and operational management success.

Prior to co-founding FirstBest, he was Senior Director of Business Development and Strategic Planning for BEA’s Ecommerce Applications Division. He developed sales strategy, strategic partnerships, and customer interaction for the division, growing annual revenue to over $150 million.

Before BEA, Mr. Belizaire co-founded The Theory Center, a leader in Java-based component software for enterprise applications. As CEO, he grew the company from inception to $10M in revenue with 43 employees. BEA Systems acquired the company in 1999 for over $160M.

Prior to co-founding The Theory Center, Mr. Belizaire served as a 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.

Mr. Belizaire holds a bachelor of science and master’s degree in computer science from Cornell University. He has completed the Wharton Business School’s Executive Development Program at the University of Pennsylvania.

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. In this role, he was responsible for building the consulting practice and training capacity for BEA’s e-commerce applications division.

Mr. Pilkerton came to BEA with the record acquisition of The Theory Center, where he was co-founder and Executive Vice President, Professional Services. Prior to founding The Theory Center, Mr. Pilkerton directed large-scale enterprise application projects for clients such as Hertz Corporation, Citibank, Lockheed Martin, and McDonnell Douglas.

Mr. Pilkerton received a B.A. from Catholic University, and an ALM in Information Technology and Management from Harvard University. He also holds a MBA from Northeastern University.

Julian Pelenur/Founder and CTO

Julian Pelenur is a software architect with broad industry experience in component-based and service-oriented applications. For over a decade, he has been at the forefront of enterprise application design and architecture.

Previously at BEA Systems, Mr. Pelenur was the Chief Architect for BEA’s Weblogic Commerce Server. He was also a technical director at BEA’s Office of Technology. Mr. Pelenur came to BEA with the acquisition of The Theory Center, where he was co-founder and Chief Architect. His team developed the industry’s most successful EJB-based component architecture for e-commerce applications.

Prior to co-founding The Theory Center, Mr. Pelenur designed and developed high performance enterprise applications, including stock trading system for State Street Bank and the Hertz Corporation’s Worldwide Reservations Systems.

Mr. Pelenur earned both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computer science from Cornell University.

Paul Cummings/VP Software Engineering

Paul Cummings joins FirstBest Systems as Vice President of Engineering.

Previously, he was Vice President of Software Development for the S1 Corporation, where he led the creation of S1’s Enterprise Insurance product line, led improvements in the area of development process modernization 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. Mr. Cummings was with S1 Corporation for 10 years, helping grow S1 from a start-up to over 3000 customers, 1500 employees, and $250M in revenue. While at S1, Mr. Cummings managed world wide development across 9 engineering centers. His work included service oriented product development with many Fortune 50 financial institutions.

Prior to S1, Mr. Cummings worked with Digital Equipment Corporation and the MITRE Corporation. At Digital, he directed UNIX Operating System security initiatives, including creation of a highly secure version of UNIX that was independently certified to meet standards for highly classified data processing. At MITRE, he specialized in integration of large scale Intelligence Data Handling Systems for Strategic Air Command and other intelligence community customers.

Cummings holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Mathematics and a Master’s Degree in Computer Science from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell.

Meira Primes/VP Marketing

Meira Primes, Vice President of Marketing for FirstBest Systems, drives strategy and execution for brand, messaging and acquisition marketing. Primes has led award-winning marketing strategies for emerging businesses and market leaders and is noted for providing exceptional strategic thinking, market leadership and broad-based marketing guidance. Under Primes’ direction, multiple companies have achieved national and global brand awareness, met valuation goals and experienced aggressive growth leading to successful IPOs or acquisition.

Most recently, Primes was Vice President of Marketing for Zoom Information, where she was responsible for overall marketing, and communications strategy and implementation. Prior to Zoom Information, Primes led the global marketing group and was a member of the executive team at Demantra (acquired by Oracle), a leading enterprise planning solutions provider.

Before Demantra, Primes was VP of Emerging Business at Weber Shandwick Worldwide, where she provided marketing and public relations counsel to market makers including, PlanetAll (acquired by Amazon), www.shopping.com (formerly www.dealtime.com), Numetrix (acquired by JDE), The Fantastic Corporation and The Theory Center (acquired by BEA), in addition to market leaders such as JD Edwards, Computer Associates and Fleet. Prior to Weber Shandwick, Primes held strategic marketing positions with CenterLine Software (now Compuware), Information Builders, Cheyenne Software (now computer Associates) and Cheyenne Communications, as well as Orbotech Systems, Israel.

Primes has spoken at Marketing Roundtable, Consumer Goods Technology, Public Relations Society of America, and the Women in Technology Conferences. She has served on the Board of Advisors of TPMA, and is a member of the CMO Council and Women in Technology.

Robert R. Lukas/VP, Underwriting Sciences

Robert Lukas has joined FirstBest Systems as the VP, Underwriting Sciences. He was most recently a Principal of Realistic Outcomes Incurred which provides consulting services focusing on business models and associated technology initiatives in the financial institution arena. Bob is the former Chief Information Officer of the Hartford’s Property/Casualty Company with responsibility for the company’s application portfolio. His focus was on establishing a new IT governance model for the Property/Casualty enterprise.

Bob’s over 30 years of IT executive experience includes the establishment of more effective IT governance models for property/casualty enterprises and exploiting technology to create revenue generating opportunities. He founded and directed the Hartford Technology Services Company, a subsidiary of the Hartford which provides a wide range of technology services to the Hartford and to other corporations in the area. The company generated $34 million of revenue in its first year of operation. Today, it employs over 400 business technology professionals. Bob also served as President of CLA Corp., a Hartford subsidiary that marketed insurance software and technology services to other insurance providers.

Bob has been active in business and technology associations, including: The Life Office Management Association (LOMA), The Advisory Boards for Technology Companies, Partners Program at Forrester Research, Inc., and Boston University Research Center, School of Business Administration.

Kelly Lynch, CPCU/Senior Director of Underwriting Sciences

Ms. Lynch brings more than 15 years of insurance industry expertise to the FirstBest team. Her insurance career began with Industrial Risk Insurers as a loss control engineer completing inspections of Highly Protected Risk (HPR) property accounts. With a move to Kemper National Insurance Company, she made the transition from loss control to underwriting.

In 1996, Ms. Lynch joined Swiss Re America, the world’s second largest reinsurer. While at Swiss Re, she managed a book of facultative and treaty business for their Engineered Risk Department (ERD). She also helped launch ERD’s program business and grew the portion of the book to more than $130M in direct written premiums.

Prior to joining FirstBest, Ms. Lynch managed Quanta U.S. Holdings’ program division. Her responsibilities included operational and underwriting oversight of more than $175M of direct written premiums written by Managing General Agents on behalf of Quanta.

Ms. Lynch holds a bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Connecticut and is a Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriter.

Tony Rosati/Director of Business Development

Tony has joined FirstBest Systems as Director of Business Development. He brings over 20 years of management experience in sales, business development and channel strategy and development to the FirstBest team. Most recently, Tony was with Gensym Corporation as Director of Worldwide Channel Development and Asia Sales. At Gensym, he successfully developed and implemented best-in-class channel partner programs that attracted new partners and supported the existing partner channel worldwide, while consistently exceeding quota.

Prior to Gensym, Tony 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, Tony was Director of Product Management for PictureTel’s Group Systems Division where he had direct responsibility for all Group System products (Concorde, Venue, Intel TeamStation, and SwiftSite), with annual revenues in excess of $250 million. Tony has also held management positions with AGFA Corporation.

Tony holds a Master’s Degree from Anna Maria College and a B.S. in Marketing from Salem State College.

John O’Brien/Director of Finance

John O’Brien is a Senior Financial Executive with over ten years of financial and operational experience in technology and investment organizations. He has successfully implemented practices that increased efficiency and profitability in well-established companies and start-up companies. John’s specific financial background includes; corporate accounting, budgeting and forecasting, operations and financial analysis, debt and equity financing, mergers and acquisitions, and investor relations. Additional areas of expertise include human resources management, incentive compensation planning and contract negotiations.

Prior to joining FirstBest as Director of Finance, 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). Mr. O’Brien played a key role in seamlessly integrating Cohesive’s financial and administrative operations into TFS’s corporate structure. Previously at State Street Bank and Trust Company, he led an accounting team responsible for domestic and international mutual funds.

John holds a B.A Degree in Business Administration from St. Anselm College in Manchester, NH.