Recognized as a thought leader and visionary of technology advancements and financial application development within the financial industry, John Best is a futurist, a bestselling FinTech author, an award-winning speaker, hosts a globally recognized podcast show, and is the Co-Founder and CEO of Best Innovation Group.

John previously served as CTO and Senior Vice President of Wescom Credit Union as well as head of technology for Wescom Resources Group.  John was responsible for a team of over 100 engineers and technical specialists. During this time Wescom Credit formed a subsidiary Credit Union Service Organization called Wescom Resources Group (WRG) whose purpose was to create technology for credit unions. Best was tapped to be the head of technology for this group while continuing his role as CTO and Senior Vice President of Wescom Credit Union.

In 2003, he led a team of developers to create a banking platform that has served hundreds of large credit unions in the US. In 2007 he led a team of mobile developers to create one of the first mobile financial applications. In 2009, during the financial disruption, Best’s leadership and technical skills were crucial to turning around his Credit Union’s fortunes.

In 2014, Best developed the first-ever financial-based voice transaction system for Alexa. In late 2015 Best and his technical team at BIG, in collaboration with Jack Henry and Associates, published the first voice-based financial transaction skill for Enrichment Credit Union in Tennessee.

In 2015, Best and BIG started working on distributed ledger platforms and is a founding member of the first-ever financial services distributed ledger designed specifically for the credit union industry. The initial design was created by Best and his technical team at BIG and it led to the implementation of Self-Sovereign Identity in the credit union space. Best and his company BIG are founding members of Sovrin.org.

In 2018, Best’s book, Breaking Digital Gridlock, was released. In it, Best covers leadership, strategic technology, security, AI, machine learning, institutional culture, and blockchain technology.

In 2019, Best and his BIG team started working in earnest on Artificial Intelligence applications working on computer vision platforms, autonomous delivery and further evolving the voice platform to include more human-like behavior.

In late 2019, Best joined the Beyond Imagination team as CFO and CIO. Best’s expertise includes data analytics, security, infrastructure, and artificial intelligence platforms. Beyond Imagination benefits from Best’s vast knowledge in these areas as well as his expert leadership skills gained from decades of leading technology teams in a wide range of successful projects.