AGOURA HILLS, CA--(Marketwired - Apr 11, 2016) - Hixme, the technology leader in the new era of employee-owned benefits, today announced the appointment of Chris Pliha as regional vice president of Sales. Chris will be responsible for recruiting, retaining and expanding Hixme's sales team. He will also lead the strategic effort to introduce Hixme to key markets across the United States. A 17-year veteran in the enterprise industry, Chris lead successful strategic selling efforts at Workday and Oracle, among other enterprise focused companies.
"We are fortunate to be able to build our own 'dream team' over the past few years," said Dan Peate, Hixme founder. "As our latest recruit, Chris will bring years of experience and passion to Hixme. We take finding the right people very seriously. We never compromise. Like our platform, we match the right person with each role, whether it's head of Sales or an entry level marketing position. We're building a platform to disrupt an industry that has been operating within the same rules for over 100 years, and it takes special people who can see that vision and help us change the benefits industry for both employers and employees."
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers led a $10.5 million Series A round in funding for Hixme last year. This staffing announcement also comes on the heels of the company's official platform launch last month.
Chris will be joining these stellar executives on the Hixme leadership team:
- Denny Weinberg, CEO: Denny is a 25-year veteran executive in health care financing and operations including a 20-year tenure as co-founder and executive vice president of WellPoint. He also served as CEO of a number of WellPoint's largest, most innovative operating companies.
- Dan Peate, Hixme Founder: Prior to founding Hixme with Karen Albanese, Dan was senior vice president of Sales and Marketing for Gallagher Benefits Services. He has also held senior roles at SGJB Insurance Brokers and Aon. Dan devotes time to serving on the boards of Hixme, CardiacDirect.com, Boom Studios, Catholic Charities of Los Angeles and several others.
- Karen Albanese, Hixme Founder and VP of Product & Operations: Karen founded Hixme with Dan Peate after spending 20 years at top-tier consulting firms including Deloitte & Touche, Marsh & McLennan, and Aon Hewitt. Karen specializes in working with large and mid-size employers to develop and implement innovative, best-in-class employee benefit strategies.
- Erik Wissig, VP of Finance & Strategic Relations: Erik was CFO of Nationwide Medical, Inc. where he oversaw the company's Mergers & Acquisitions, Accounting, Banking and Strategic Planning divisions. Erik also served as director in the Investment Banking group of Duff & Phelps, LLC, where he advised companies in mergers and acquisitions, raising capital, leveraged buy-outs, going private transactions and recapitalizations.
- Amir Pirnia, VP of Engineering: Amir came to Hixme after overseeing large-scale software development projects at well-known startups such as LegalZoom and ABC Mouse. At ABC Mouse/Age of Learning, a leading online children's education platform, he served as VP of Engineering. Prior to Age of Learning, Amir was sr. director of Engineering at LegalZoom.
- Tammy Olson, VP of Client Services: As leader of Client Services, Tammy guides employers to meet their strategic employee benefit goals using Hixme's innovative migration plan and intuitive technology platform. She has more than 20 years of benefits consulting experience with mid to large employers and served as principal and West Market Exchange sales leader for Mercer's private exchange solution.
Hixme's unique platform
Hixme's flexible, scalable cloud platform leverages data science and analytics to personalize and package employee benefits into logical "bundles," while providing benefit administrators and employees with a simple, easy-to-use portal to select and manage their benefits. Employees set up their individual and family profile with Hixme, then the platform aggregates this information and presents the employee with plan options tailored to their specific needs, preferences and lifestyle.
To learn more about the Hixme platform visit www.hixme.com. To see more from the company, check out their social channels on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
About Hixme
Hixme is the technology leader for the new era of employee-owned health benefits for large organizations. Bringing back the benefit lost to the costly and complex traditional employer-based model, Hixme's team of benefits and healthcare experts developed breakthrough technology and an intuitive platform that gives employees the freedom to choose the benefits they really plan to use. Organizations can use Hixme to leave the benefits treadmill behind, reduce administrative complexity and costs, and focus on what matters most. For more information about Hixme, visit www.hixme.com.