John Pergande
Founder and Chairman of the Board
"Through our sound business strategy backed by advanced technology and insurance domain expertise, we expect InsureZone to be cash positive by year-end 2001."

A Brief Summary of John's Career
John Pergande is the founder and chairman of InsureZone. He is also general partner of Buena Venture Associates, the venture capital firm that financed InsureZone. John was chairman and CFO of Pyramid Services, a developer of insurance claims processing software. Pyramid was acquired by an investment partnership formed by John, which included Sid R. Bass and Pyramid management. John started his career at Spear, Leeds and Kellogg on the floor of the New York Futures Stock Exchange and then spent two years as a market maker, trading stock options at the Chicago Board Options Exchange. From 1991 to 1995, he served as a corporate banker for Citibank. From there, he joined the corporate finance group at Electronic Data Systems. Through BVA, John is an investor in and a director of INSpire, Tradecast, Inc., Xactimed, Inc., and Single Source Communications LLC. His nonprofit interests include board seats of the Boys & Girls Club of Fort Worth, The Community Foundation, and fund-raising for the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. John earned a bachelor's degree in economics and political science from Yale University and a master's degree in business administration from Northwestern University.

John on what led him to InsureZone
"While I was at Pyramid Services one of our goals was to process claims over the Internet. We sold Pyramid to Kemper before we had a chance to fully implement that strategy. At BVA, we further explored the idea of Internet-based claims processing, but found the market for selling insurance over the Internet to be far more lucrative. That idea became InsureZone. By establishing this company we are living out our vision of selling insurance online, using an advanced e-commerce platform to manage the entire sales process for an insurance policy, end-to-end."

John on his role at InsureZone
"My role as Chairman of InsureZone is to help the management team make the best strategic decisions possible. We are building a company that incorporates the success of an existing brick-and-mortar model, and complements it with Internet-based capabilities that will enable huge revenue growth. Our merger with Higginbotham & Associates, the nation's 118th-largest insurance broker, is proof of that. We needed real insurance industry experience, and we also needed the ability to incubate our ideas. Higginbotham has given us both of those things. This company has revenue and consistent positive cash flows. We've never believed that it makes sense to spend millions of dollars to brand a business that you hope will have the market share to justify losing money for five years before you break even. Through our sound business strategy backed by advanced technology and insurance domain expertise, we expect InsureZone to be cash positive by year-end 2001."

J. Russell Reid
Board Member
"A big part of InsureZone's mission is deploying our strategy for InsureZone's affinity partners - for example, a financial institution establishing an online insurance business to serve its customers under its own label."

A Brief Summary of Rusty's Career
Known worldwide as a leading venture capital and principal equity investor for 30 years, Sid R. Bass began his career in 1969 after receiving his master's degree in business administration from Stanford University. In 1971, he formed Idanta Partners with David Dunn and other members of the Bass family. Through the years, he has successfully invested in a wide variety of companies, from small start-ups to very large businesses, in a number of different industries. In 1998, Sid formed Buena Venture Associates, the venture capital firm that financed InsureZone. Buena Venture Associates is an early stage venture capital investor primarily interested in companies that have technology or offer services focused on the delivery of financial services over the Internet.

Rusty on what led him to InsureZone
"My approach has always been to take what I have, and reengineer it to make it work more successfully. When I came to Higginbotham, I deployed an aggressive growth strategy, and built the infrastructure and incentives to support it. It's also my style to try to be on the forefront. As we built Higginbotham, we were well aware that deregulation would allow banks to get into the industry, and that the Internet was obviously going to play a role. So we started working with banks to be the sole provider of insurance products to their customers, and with some large corporations to offer personal, auto, homeowners and umbrella coverage to their employees. The problem was finding an easy way to distribute those products. We needed a way, in essence, to look like that bank or that large corporation. InsureZone's MarketSecure platform provides that capability. So obviously, when InsureZone came to us with it, it made a lot of sense to partner with them."

Sid R. Bass
Advisor to the Board
"A big part of InsureZone's mission is deploying our strategy for InsureZone's affinity partners - for example, a financial institution establishing an online insurance business to serve its customers under its own label."

A Brief Summary of Sid's Career
Known worldwide as a leading venture capital and principal equity investor for 30 years, Sid R. Bass began his career in 1969 after receiving his master's degree in business administration from Stanford University. In 1971, he formed Idanta Partners with David Dunn and other members of the Bass family. Through the years, he has successfully invested in a wide variety of companies, from small start-ups to very large businesses, in a number of different industries. In 1998, Sid formed Buena Venture Associates, the venture capital firm that financed InsureZone. Buena Venture Associates is an early stage venture capital investor primarily interested in companies that have technology or offer services focused on the delivery of financial services over the Internet.