Alan Trefler

Alan N. Trefler is an American billionaire businessman and chess master best known as the chief executive officer (CEO) of Pegasystems, a multinational software company he founded in 1983. Prior to Pegasystems, in 1975 Trefler tied for first place in the World Open Chess Championship with grandmaster Pal Benko, afterwards working as a software engineer for Casher Associates and TMI Systems. Founding Pegasystems at the age of 27, he took the company Public company in 1996, with Trefler remaining clerk and president until 1999 and afterwards becoming CEO. With a 52 percent ownership stake in Pegasystems, his net worth surpassed $1 billion in 2013 and in March 2017 he appeared on the Forbes Billionaire's List for the first time. In 2014 he authored the book Build for Change, which addresses changing consumer markets. Involved in philanthropy, in 1997 he established the Trefler Foundation.