Management

Eric Wadsworth / CEO: North America

As CEO of North America, Eric drives the Innovation Group strategy ensuring a sustainable growing business while providing key leadership in group initiatives in the US and Globally. Eric is a qualified chartered accountant, whose early career was spent in the auditing and consulting arena with PWC. He has extensive experience in the financial services industry and held the position of Finance Executive at Aegis Insurance, where he was responsible for the financial and procurement divisions. In 1997, Eric was invited to join CWA as Managing Director and gained extensive experience in the motor market, most notably in the area of supply chain management in insurance related processes. Later that year, he and other members of management bought majority shares in this business and the eQuals Group materialized, focusing on providing end-to-end administration services to the risk carrier industry. Through an affiliation with MotorCare UK and its various global business units, Eric gained international experience and the attention of Innovation Group, which led to the eQuals acquisition in 2001. Eric was one of the key drivers in establishing the global outsourcing business of the group prior to his current appointment.

Clint Kerekes / COO: North America

As COO of the North American Operation, Clint is responsible for the management of the various products and services delivered. This includes Call Centers both inbound and outbound, Process Management and Network Management, including our current business units Innovation First Notice, Innovation Auto and Innovation Property. Clint has been with Innovation Group since 1998 holding management positions in a number of functional areas in different countries within the Group; including Finance Executive (South Africa), Head of Warranty (South Africa), Acting COO (Australia) and COO Innovation Hub (South Africa). Clint graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Witwatersrand South Africa.

Greg Powers / Chief Marketing Officer & SVP of Sales

Greg Powers has overall responsibility for the company’s sales, marketing and business development direction. He brings over 15 years of sales and management experience and an established track record of delivering sustained customer growth and satisfaction to this position. Before joining First Notice in 2001, he served as CRM startup Revenio, Inc’s (acquired by Vignette) first Director of Sales, securing Fortune 500 customers for its multi-channel call center and marketing automation platform. Prior to this, Greg spent five years at NewsEdge Corporation (acquired by Thomson) in various sales/sales management roles. Before NewsEdge, he held sales positions at computer hardware and data warehousing provider NCR Corporation. Greg has spoken at numerous industry conferences and forums, including IASA, as well as panels sponsored by Guidewire, Claims Harbor and ClaimForce. Greg received his BA in Economics from the College of the Holy Cross, and his Masters in Business Administration from the Whittemore School at the University of New Hampshire.

Mark Leonard / Sr. Vice President: Account Management

Mark directs the Strategic Account Management team for Innovation First Notice and is charged with managing and growing the company’s installed customer base. He is also responsible for the development, documentation and implementation of the corporate strategy for ongoing account relationships. Before coming to First Notice, Mark spent more than 15 years in consulting, business development, account management, and strategic alliance positions for such companies as Fleet Bank, Digitas, The Faneuil Group and Arvato (Bertelsmann). At Arvato, Mark was responsible for CRM portfolio growth & alliance management within the company’s business process outsourcing (BPO) function. At the Faneuil Group, Mark was SVP responsible for Business Development and Account Management for this multi-channel BPO organization. Mark received his B.Sc. and M.A. from Trinity College Dublin. He also holds a Law degree from the Queen’s University Belfast.

Walter Heffernan / Vice President: IT

Walter Heffernan manages the creation of all new client programs at Innovation First Notice, as well as the company’s IT infrastructure and development activities. His teams are responsible for accurately capturing client requirements and then rapidly turning those requirements into ClaimCapture account hierarchies, business rules, call flows, routings, and seamless EDI/XML connectivity. Walter has been with First Notice since 1995, working on client implementations in a variety of roles. He has a wealth of IT/development experience including previous positions at Bay State Healthcare and in the manufacturing industry. Walter has a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Northeastern University.

Ara Pongratz / Vice President: Professional Services

Ara Pongratz directs all architecture and software development of ClaimCapture™, the industry-leading intake and distribution platform. He brings to this role over twenty years of experience managing IT operations and development organizations in the insurance and healthcare verticals. Prior to joining First Notice in 2001, he managed IT initiatives at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care where he was responsible for designing, developing, implementing, and supporting enrollment, claims, and provider systems. At MaxSol Inc., he designed, developed and deployed Web-based platforms enabling various healthcare and P&C constituents to securely access proprietary data. Ara is a summa cum laude graduate of Northeastern University.