Alan Trefler

Although he attained the level of chess master[11] and considered going professional,[14] after Trefler graduated from Dartmouth he moved into software engineering instead.[11] In the early 1980s he developed computer systems that could play chess,[18] later applying the same business techniques to teaching computers how to process business rules.[11] Between 1978 and 1980[16] Trefler was a senior project manager for Casher Associates Inc., a business process management company in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.[3] He then worked at TMI Systems, where he led the development of their funds transfer product[3] from 1980 to 1983.[16]

He founded Pegasystems in April 1983, taking on the roles of CEO and chairman[3] at the age of 27.[4] Expressing frustration with the "primitive" computer systems available for companies such as banks and insurance companies,[12] he states that "when I started Pega, it was with the vision that we could create a set of metaphors –an intermediate visual language that would enable business people to more directly instruct the machine... [and] get the computer to really understand how business people wanted things to work.... And it turns out to be a fairly hard problem to solve."[18] Basing the company in Cambridge, Massachusetts[4] with Citibank as his first client,[11] during the company's early years Trefler focused on providing case management for companies such as American Express.[18]

The company went public in 1996[5] on NASDAQ.[18] Inventing a number of patents for use in Pegasystems' software architecture,[3] in 1998 Trefler was granted a United States patent for Pegasystems' distinctive rules-based architecture,[11] which provides the framework for Pegasystems' business process management (BPM) solutions.[19] Trefler remained clerk of Pegasystems Inc. until June 1999, and president until October 1999.[3] He remained CEO and chairman of the company's board of directors.[2]

In 2009 Trefler won the Stevie Award for Computer Software CEO of the Year at the American Business Awards.[20][21] In March 2010, Pegasystems acquired Chordiant for around $161.5 million,[22] which gave Pegasystems access to new markets such as telecommunications and healthcare.[23] The Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council named him their Public Company CEO of the Year in 2011.[21] With a 52 percent ownership stake in Pegasystems,[4][6] his net worth surpassed $1 billion on November 25, 2013.[6] His Pegasystems salary was $751,526 in 2014.[24] That year, Business Insider ranked him the eighth lowest paid CEO in the tech industry.[25]

In 2014 he authored and published Build for Change, a book focused on the management of customers and business processes. A Forbes contributor related that the book made "a convincing argument" that companies needed to prepare for changes in customer behavior, or face negative repercussions.[8]

Pegasystems had 3,000 employees, 30 offices, and "more than half a billion dollars in revenue" by early 2015.[18] In 2015, courts ruled in Trefler's and Pegasystems' favor in a copyright infringement suit filed by YYZ, a company the press described as a patent troll.[26] Trefler has been recognized by the Babson College Academy of Distinguished Entrepreneurs,[3] and he speaks publicly on business and software topics at various events and conferences. Among other publications, he has appeared in Barron's, the BBC, Forbes, Fortune, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Reuters,[3] and Bloomberg Television.[27] Trefler made the Forbes Billionaire's List in March 2017.[7]