Suresh Prabhu - Group Chairman

As Chairman, Suresh's current focus is on taking the Group forward on a new growth path. He has built FirstApex from a start-up of 3 people to a Company of more than 200 people, with operations in four continents. He is responsible for Corporate level vision and directions. He has over 38 years of experience, including 9 years in IBM in Programming, Systems Design and Sales. Suresh has a First Class Bachelors Degree in Engineering from Madras University, India. He has also completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School.

S Sivakumaran - Group Chief Executive Officer

Siva joined FirstApex in 1986. He is overall in-charge of Sales & Marketing, and Operations of the group, and is a Director of the Board of FirstApex Group. Siva has over 27 years of experience. He started his career as Software Engineer in Infosys Consultants in Bangalore, India. During his long experience at FirstApex, Siva has played variety of roles including Architecture and Development of Non-Life and Reinsurance software products, management of more than 70 customer

projects throughout Asia, and setting-up of FirstApex’s operations and facilities in India, Japan and Korea.

Siva has won many awards for system design and development at FirstApex. He has handled several complex projects and has provided consultancy services for Royal & SunAlliance, Mitsui Marine & Fire Insurance Co., Sumitomo Marine & Fire Insurance, Allianz, Tokio Marine and Munich Re. He has a Bachelor Degree in Technology from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India, and MBA from Cranfield University, United Kingdom.

Min Park - Chief Executive Officer, FirstApex, Korea

Min Park joined FirstApex in 2000 with over 22 years of experience in IBM, where he has successfully played multiple roles. Min Park has worked in the Insurance IT solutions segment and has been involved in several large IBM SI projects and IBM's IAA (Insurance Application Architecture) projects with a number of large Incurrence companies. He has served as Regional Coordinator for Insurance Sales initiatives for IBM Asia Pacific, a role that first brought him in contact with FirstApex.

Tsutomu Tazawa - Chief Executive Officer, FirstApex Consulting, Japan

Tazawa joined FirstApex in 2003. He has over 23 years of experience in IT strategy consulting, including extensive experience of management consultancy to large Financial Institutions and major Insurance companies. Previously, Tazawa was working as a Senior Consultant with Nomura Research Institute and progressed to Senior VP at their New York office. He is a graduate in Electronics Engineering from Tohoku University.

Sanjeev Joshi - Special Advisor

Sanjeev joined FirstApex in 1997. Prior to joining FirstApex, he worked for more than 11 years at Infosys. Sanjeev has extensive experience in setting-up world-class facilities for Off-shore Development Centers.

Mandeep Vakani - Chief Operating Officer

Mandeep joined FirstApex in 2004. He heads the India operations and the Engineering and Research Division of FirstApex Group. Mandeep is responsible for the Architecture and Development of FirstApex’s next generation Insurance software products and framework. He is also actively involved in scalability and performance testing and tuning.

Mandeep has over 23 years of experience in software solutions, product development and project management in global, cross-cultural environments. During his 11 years stay in France, he has worked with two different companies and has been involved in architecting and development of particularly successful and highly scalable software products: Arcole - an ERP Package under Unix/Oracle with over 300 installed sites, and Satellit – a Freight Management Package able to cater to operations of 25 users, up to 500+ users. Mandeep has worked as Director IT of BAX Global, France, part of BAX Global Inc.

He has also been involved in lead engineering for an Active Networking System start-up in Silicon Valley, USA.

Mandeep holds an Engineering Degree and has a Post Graduate Degree in Software Technologies from NCSDCT, now C-DAC Mumbai. He is also a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) from the Project Management Institute (PMI).

Pejawar N Rao - Deputy Chief Operating Officer

Pejawar joined FirstApex in 1993 with 15 years of design, development, implementation, and program management experience in product and project management across the Asia Pacific region. Presently, he heads the Delivery and Support Teams at FirstApex responsible for one of FirstApex’s largest Clients - Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Group.   Pejawar has worked for more than 3 years at Wipro and has extensive experience in customer and delivery management.

He has won many awards including the Customer and Professional Excellence Award at FirstApex. Pejawar has handled many large projects in Non-Life Insurance domain for large multinational Insurance companies like Allianz, Mitsui Marine & Fire Insurance Co. and Royal & SunAlliance.

He holds a Masters Degree in Computer Applications from Mysore University.

Srinivas Rao - Vice President

Srini heads the Consulting and Services Division (CSD) at FirstApex. He is responsible for building the Insurance Capability Practice & Domain Architecture of FirstApex's Insurance software products and framework.   Srini has over 22 years of experience, which include 12 years of Insurance industry experience and 10 years in IT. He has rich product implementation experience across different geographies and vast exposure to the various insurance business practices in different regions and countries, inducing Asia Pacific, Middle East, Africa and USA.

B P Suresh - Vice President

B P Suresh joined FirstApex in 2005. He brings with him over 22 years of Insurance domain and IT experience having worked and lived in countries like Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and India. B P Suresh currently heads the General Insurance Division of FirstApex Group and is based in Bangalore, India.   He has rich Insurance domain experience and has served as Head of IT, successfully managing numerous large-scale projects with large teams.

B P Suresh holds a Bachelors Degree in Commerce and holds a Post Graduate Degree in Law.

K Govindarajan - Vice President, Japan

Govind has more than 23 years of IT Industry experience, out of which 18 years in Japan. With his extensive Japanese Insurance Industry experience he has provided consultancy services to companies like Sompo Japan, Aioi, Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Group, etc. Govind has a Graduate Degree in Engineering (Computer Science) from REC, Trichy and holds MBA from Cardean University, Illinois, USA. He is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) from the Project Management Institute (PMI).

Govind’s expertise lies in handling large multi-location projects involving multi-cultural and multi-lingual teams.

Deeptha Susiriwardana - Divisional Head, Associate Vice President

With over 19 years of experience in the IT Industry, from development to project management, Deeptha currently heads the Customer Support & Management Division in FirstApex Singapore, handling projects in South-East Asia & East Asia.   He joined FirstApex in Singapore in 1995. During his tenure in FirstApex, Deeptha has been based in Tokyo in the past, and has been involved in key projects with FirstApex’s Clients in Japan.

He has excellent knowledge of Reinsurance domain due to his heavy involvement in the product development of FirstApex’s Reinsurance software system and his involvement in prime Reinsurance projects.

Deeptha has worked with IBM and Interblocks in Sri Lanka and has gained solid experience and knowledge of IT solutions development for the Banking Industry and the automation of complex Government operations.

He graduated from The British Computer Society and is a Charted Member of the same.

 

Yap Siew Wah – General Manager, Greater China

 

Yap Siew Wah joined FirstApex in 2009. He brings with him over 24 years of experience in various capacities in IT in the Insurance Industry, ranging from insurance IT operations, software development & implementation, project management, sales & marketing to company operations.   He has rich insurance domain knowledge in both life and non-life (P&C) sectors and has vast exposure to various insurance business value-chain practices in different countries across Asia Pacific region.

He has a Bachelor Degree in Computer Science from London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE), United Kingdom.