Leadership Team

Bill Lester
President, Co-Founder and Board Member of Benefit Harbor

Bill Lester was named President of Benefit Harbor in December 2000. His responsibility is to set the company’s overall strategy, foster strategic partnerships, and deliver compelling services that meet the needs of Benefit Harbor's current and future customers.

Bill has extensive business experience working in private and public companies, focusing on the healthcare, insurance and financial industries. Prior to joining Benefit Harbor, Bill worked on large emerging technology projects for Southwest Airlines, where he led project teams that focused on security initiatives, on-time performance, and flight schedule optimization. Previously, he worked for Bank One Capital Partners where he was responsible for analyzing business plans for mezzanine investments.

Bill holds an MA degree in applied economics from Southern Methodist University, and a BA degree in business administration from Texas Christian University.

Yaser Amarneh
Chief Technology Officer

Yaser Amarneh joined Benefit Harbor as Chief Technology Officer in November 2000. He oversees all of Benefit Harbor's systems engineering, architecture and e-commerce initiatives.

Yaser has a broad range of experience in software development languages and environments. Prior to joining Benefit Harbor, he led enterprise-scale development teams at companies such as IBM, Burlington Northern Santa Fe, MCI, Southwest Airlines, Federal Express, and Sabre. While at Sabre, Yaser participated in the design and implementation of AACorn, a product that allowed agents to complete a number of transactions simultaneously, increasing customer satisfaction and saving American Airlines time and money. At Southwest Airlines he designed and implemented Web-based applications. At Barrette Burke Wilson, Yaser designed and implemented an ORACLE based system for lawyers to track bankruptcies and litigation cases.

Yaser received a BA degree in Computer Sciences from the University of North Texas. He has received special training in EJB, Java, UML, Sybase System 11, and SilverStream.

Nancy Emmons
Executive Vice President, Marketing Operations

Nancy Emmons joined Benefit Harbor in February 2004. Her primary responsibility is to support broker and client relationships by overseeing all aspects of solutions delivery, including implementation, training, customer service center operations, and integrating voluntary insurance products into the overall client offering.

Nancy has been a leader in the insurance and technology business for nearly 20 years. Her background includes experience as an insurance provider representative; broker and partner in a worksite enrollment company; and vice president of sales and marketing administration for Transamerica. Nancy has extensive expertise in the worksite voluntary-benefit arena and in product design, and was influential in the development of enrollment technology systems for two major worksite carriers.

Nancy holds a associate degree in business education from Pierce College.

Jo Ann Blackford
Senior Vice President of Sales and Client Management

Jo joined Benefit Harbor in April 2008. Her responsibility is to develop collaborative relationships with customers, prospects, and channel partners. She works directly with current and prospective customers to ensure that Benefit Harbor’s solutions both meet their immediate needs, and position them to respond to changes in the benefits marketplace.

Jo brings more than 25 years of benefits consulting and outsourcing experience. Prior to joining Benefit Harbor, she was the Vice President of Sales for Extend Health, where she was instrumental in establishing the firm as a leading provider of defined contribution health care programs. Previously she spent more than 20 years with Hewitt Associates, where she consulted with clients on all aspects of their human resource, total compensation, and benefit strategies, specializing in benefit plan design, communication, implementation, administration, and delivery. Her leadership roles at Hewitt included relationship management and team leadership as a Managing Consultant, and developing and taking to market an enterprise outsourcing solution for consumer-driven health care as part of the Sageo launch team.