Bios
Nick Fera, Chief Executive Officer & President
Nick has more than 24 years of business software management experience. As the Chairman and CEO of Parlano, Nick grew Parlano to more than 60 employees, established an intercontinental presence, raised $11 million in capital, and exponentially grew the customer base. Under his direction, Parlano was acquired by Microsoft in October 2007. Prior to Parlano, Nick spent 18 months as the vice president of data warehousing and business intelligence at Platinum Technologies, launching a Year 2000 software product and driving revenues to over $20 million in just eight months. He has also held executive management positions a number of companies including President and COO of The Alcar Group (acquired by Hyperion Software) and currently sits on the Board of Directors at NewsGator Technologies, Inc. Nick holds a BS in Finance from the University of Illinois and a master’s degree in management from Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management.
Samuel Mele, Co-Founder & Managing Director
Sam has more than 20 years of sales and management experience in enterprise software. As the VP of Sales for Europe, the Middle East and Africa from 2000 to 2002 at Ariba, Inc., Sam was responsible for all sales activities and played a key role in establishing Ariba EMEA, driving revenues from $2 million to over $100 million in just two years. Prior to joining Ariba, Sam spent 10 years with Oracle Corporation in various sales roles during a period when Oracle’s annual revenues grew from $500 million to over $8 billion. Sam graduated with Honors from the University of Illinois with a BS in Mechanical Engineering.
James Mullen, Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer
Jim has over 22 years of software development experience in enterprise software. Jim was the founder and President of Intercap Systems, a software company that designed and built leading-edge financial services back office systems. Prior to Intercap, Jim held senior technical and sales management positions at Siebel, Softwire/Kabira, Rich/Reuters and Oracle. Jim holds a BS in Computer and Electrical Engineering from Purdue University and an MBA in Finance and Marketing from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Lena Borisenko, VP of Client Services
Lena manages the Client Services and Data Operations teams who support the growing number of Firm58 customers. Prior to Firm58, she led a team of field service engineers at Siemens Medical Solutions Diagnostics. Before that, Lena spent eight years at Reuters America where she held a number of roles including Director, Technical Account Management and Senior Systems Engineer. Lena graduated from DePaul University with a BS in Computer Science.
