Alan Merchant, CEO & Co-Founder

With 35 years of leadership experience in the health care industry, Alan Merchant has a unique understanding of health benefit administration systems. Working for organizations ranging from local hospital systems to the largest U.S. health insurer, Mr. Merchant has been instrumental in architecting, building and implementing solutions that support diverse administrative functions from care delivery to claims payment. This background gives him an exceptional perspective in creating solutions that address clients’ technical as well as operational needs.

Mr. Merchant is best known for his work over the past decade as system and operational architect of the CDH platform at Lumenos, a recognized pioneer of CDH plans. His unique skills helped translate a strategic vision for CDH into an operational and technical success. What’s more, his leadership helped Lumenos compete head-to-head with major national carriers, and attract a number of Fortune 500 companies as clients.

After WellPoint acquired Lumenos in 2005 (primarily for its technology platform), Mr. Merchant provided vital leadership in the integration of the Lumenos platform into a variety of WellPoint’s enterprise solutions, enabling the organization and its subsidiaries to design and sell complex CDH products. Earlier in his career, Mr. Merchant worked as an independent consultant to multiple healthcare organizations and served in management positions at ValueOptions, Inc., a leading behavioral health MCO, Dowty Aviation Services, a subsidiary of General Electric, Atlantic City Medical Center, and Shore Memorial Hospital.

Nick Larocca, CIO & Co-Founder

Nick Larocca is an expert technologist with over 20 years of leadership experience in software and systems development in the fields of healthcare, telecommunications and professional services. He specializes in the architecture and design of transactional, high-performance and distributed Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) solutions that deliver business value and operational cost savings.

Before helping to co-found Acero Health Technologies, Mr. Larocca’s career included service as a principal consultant at Keane, Inc. and at Lumenos, Inc., a venture-funded pioneer in CDH products. At Lumenos, he served in progressively senior leadership roles, based on his demonstrated success at architecting and deploying robust SOA solutions to support key business functions.

Following the company’s acquisition by WellPoint, Inc. Mr. Larocca served as Staff Vice President of Technology. To address WellPoint’s need for high-performance transactional solutions, he also served as technical team lead in designing solutions for its CDH and e-Business platforms. These designs interacted with multiple enterprise systems within WellPoint, and included real-time transaction solutions for handling medical and pharmacy claims, as well as enrollment and financial data.

Mr. Larocca is highly decorated for his distinguished service and leadership in the United States Army, and served in Operations Just Cause, Desert Storm and Desert Shield. He earned a B.A. in Computer Science from Thomas Edison State University, and a MS in Computer Information Systems (MS CIS) with concentrations in IT Security and Data Mining/Business Intelligence from Boston University; he holds the Certified Secure Software Lifecycle Professional (CSSLP) certification from ISC2.