Background
Born to a Jewish family, his father was a Holocaust survivor who immigrated to the United States after World World War II and founded an antique restoration business in Newton, Massachusetts.
Born to a Jewish family, his father was a Holocaust survivor who immigrated to the United States after World World War II and founded an antique restoration business in Newton, Massachusetts.
Trefler was raised in Brookline, Massachusetts where he graduated from Brookline High School and later attended Dartmouth College, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Surgery in economics and computer science in 1977.
Trefler also serves as chairman of the company"s Board of Directors. At Dartmouth, he was active in playing chess. After college, Trefler took a position as a Senior Project Manager for Casher Associates Incorporated., a business process management company, in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.
He then moved to Three Mile Island Systems as a Funds Transfer Product Manager before founding Pegasystems in April 1983.
At the time, they donated $1 million to Dorchester High School
In 1998, Trefler was granted a United States Patent for Pegasystems" distinctive Inherited Rule-Based Architecture, which provides the framework for Pegasystems" BPM solutions. While at Dartmouth, Trefler entered the 1975 World Open Chess Championship in New New York
He entered the tournament with a 2075 Elo rating, 125 points below the lowest master-rated player, ranking him 115th overall in the tournament.