James D. Lester, III

After 39 years in the information technology business, Jim Lester is enjoying semi-retirement. In his most recent position at Aflac Inc. of Columbus, Georgia, Jim served as senior vice president, CIO and later global technology strategy officer. Lester created and embarked on a successful multi-year strategic plan to renew information technology at Aflac’s US and Japanese operations. In 1999, Aflac acquired his software company, Portable Systems Technology (PST) where Lester and his staff created Smithsonian award-winning software for field force automation. Before starting Portable Systems in 1992, Lester founded Advanced Business Systems, Inc. (ABS), a software provider for the insurance industry. Lester sold ABS to a large mid-western insurance company in 1990. Lester also served as chief information executive at Scientific Atlanta, Medical Investment Corporation and Seabrook Foods, a division of Springs Mills. Lester is a past member of the Georgia CIO Leadership Board and currently on the advisory board of the Columbus Regional Technology Center. He received his Bachelor of Arts from Emory University in Mathematics and his Master of Science in Computer Science from Georgia Institute of Technology.