FairChoice Systems was founded in 2007 by experienced technology and student services professionals. The team provides consulting services and solutions development to public sector and nonprofit institutions.

Our Mission

• We believe technology is a powerful lever for organizational change and service effectiveness, and that the cost of technology must be justified by a reasonable return on investment.
• We believe incremental change is good, and that new systems should be designed to play well with the old.
• We believe information enables effective decision making, and that systems must provide their customers with actionable information.
• We believe one size does not fit all, and that software vendors must provide solutions that accommodate the unique needs of each client.

Our Team

Bernie Kluger, CEO & Principal Consultant

Bernie has a proven track record in the design and implementation of solutions that improve the capacity of organizations to achieve their strategic objectives through the innovative use of technology. Bernie has provided IT leadership at Columbia University and McKinsey & Company, and for numerous consulting clients. Bernie was also co-founder and president of Omnipod, an enterprise IM and file-sharing ASP. Omnipod was acquired by MessageLabs in October 2005.

Bernie holds a B.A. in Political Economy from Williams College and an M.B.A. from Columbia University.

Jerry Altzman, Chief Technology Officer

Jerry is a technologist with well over 20 years of active development and operations experience in the private sector and higher education. Most recently he was Director of Operations and Senior Engineer at Omnipod, an enterprise IM and file-sharing ASP. Before that, he was the lead quantitative strategist at Polaris Asset Management, a Manhattan-based fixed-income hedge fund.

Jerry holds an B.A. in Mathematics and Physics from Columbia University and a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from the City University of New York.

Kirsten Thien, Senior Vice President, Consulting Service

As FairChoice SVP, Consulting Service, Kirsten Thien provides expert business analysis, project management, and data integration support for projects that range from new systems integration, to software customization, or simply re-assessing office process to improve efficiency, accuracy, and the level of customer service.

Kirsten began her career in higher education as a Financial Aid Administrator in 1994. Kirsten was elevated in 1999 to manage Client Services for the Office of Student Information Systems at Columbia University. In this capacity, she served as the primary liaison between over 50 separate University offices and the SIS technology staff. In addition to managing the complete life cycle of SIS releases, Kirsten was responsible for all SIS training, documentation, and ongoing improvements to the performance and usage of the SIS. No stranger to understanding the limitations on resources felt by many university offices, Kirsten’s ability to understand and communicate equally well with end-users and programmers facilitated a measurable increase in end-user satisfaction.

Kirsten graduated from The McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration.

Ross Whiting, Chief Financial Officer

Serving as Chief Financial Officer of FairChoice Systems, his responsibilities include strategic planning and partnership development. Ross is an experienced investor whose investments have included Global Educational Technologies (www.excent.com) and Omnipod. Ross served for 15 years as a senior partner of the Cincinnati-based Growth & Income Fund. Ross holds a B.A. in Economics from Drew University and a Masters in Technology Management from Polytechnic University.