Chris Spinella is an accomplished executive with experience in operations, P&L oversight, product development, multi-channel product distribution, strategy, sales and marketing with start-up, growth and Fortune 500 organizations.
Chris earned his B.S. in Management degree at Arizona State University where he was elected the Activities Vice President of its Associated Students and selected as ASU’s Man of the Year.
After graduation, Chris started his career in a sales position with American Hospital Supply Corporation. He then went to work for CIGNA Health Plan and was increasingly promoted from Executive Trainee, to Development Manager, to Director of Development to Assistant Vice President in a four-year time frame in this Fortune 500 Company.
At CIGNA, Chris was responsible for the development of managed health care companies in cities around the United States including conducting feasibility studies to determine the development requirements and marketability prospects of setting up managed health care companies in major U.S. markets. He also developed CIGNA Health Plan of Cleveland where he negotiated and finalized contracts, including medical services pricing, with major hospitals and health care providers in Cleveland, Ohio; vetted and hired the
company’s executive team including General Manager, CFO, VP of Sales and COO; and worked with the new General Manager and her executive team to better transition the company from a development effort to a
fully operational organization.
Chris left CIGNA to attend the Harvard Business School where he earned his MBA.
After Harvard, Chris became the Vice President of Development for Salick Healthcare in Los Angeles where he was responsible for the development of outpatient cancer centers in joint ventures with major hospitals in the United States. At Salick, Chris negotiated a joint venture agreement with the University of Kansas Medical Center and then developed the U of K Outpatient Cancer Center including hiring the management team to run the operation.
Chris then founded Smart Technologies whose primary business was to design and manufacture smart card readers and integrated software to better enable the use of smart cards with various software applications that required greater security.
Chris also co-founded and was CEO of APPSware Holdings, Inc. a technology incubator company. APPSware Holdings business model was to incubate companies by developing their technology, strategy and business models then building a management team to operate them. APPSware Holdings founded iTool.com, a do-it-yourself e-commerce website development company which was acquired by Onvia, co-founded NetSearch, a wireless lead generation company which was acquired by Aether Systems and founded Apriva, a mobile payments and secure communications company.
Chris merged his company, Smart Technologies, into Apriva in order to utilize its technology as part of a secure communications contract with the U.S. government where he was granted a Top-Secret security clearance. This technology is used by the U.S. intelligence community to better secure the transport and authentication of classified data using wireless devices and networks.
Chris became the CEO of Apriva where he drove its strategic direction including long-range planning and provided cross-functional leadership with 7 direct reports including: President, CFO, COO, Chief Architect, VP of Sales and Marketing, General Counsel, and VP of Human Resources.
Key achievements include:
- Effectively built an organization that started with 10 employees to 245.
- Successfully raised capital to fund the company’s growth and brought the company to profitability.
- Negotiated and executed contracts with many Fortune 500 companies and government agencies including the U.S. Intelligence Community and the Department of Defense.
- Developed contractual relationships and direct-line communication connections with more than 35 of the largest payment processing companies in the U.S.
- Executed more than 1,000 contracts with point-of-sale channel partners in the U.S.
- Successfully launched both branded and private labeled point of sale products and applications.