Nick Puntikov

Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer First Line Software

Last Reviewed: September 28, 2026

Executive Summary

Nick Puntikov is Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of First Line Software, a Cambridge, Massachusetts software engineering firm that now positions itself around building and operating AI systems for clients in real estate, healthcare and digital experience. He has run software-services businesses for more than three decades: he founded his first engineering firm in 1991, grew it to 700 engineers, and after its 2007 merger with Exigen Services ran the combined 1,500-person operation across six countries as CEO. At First Line Software he has been CEO through a significant restructuring, when the company exited Russia in 2022 and moved its work to centres elsewhere in Europe, the US, India and Australia.

Career Highlights

• Chairman of the Board and CEO of First Line Software, headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts; a Form C filed with the SEC gives his tenure as CEO from 2015.
• Founded his first software engineering firm in 1991, which grew into a services provider to clients in North America and Europe with 700 engineers.
• CEO of the joint company after its 2007 merger with Exigen Services, running 1,500 staff in six countries across Europe, the Baltics and China.
• CEO when First Line Software stopped all operations in Russia from 15 April 2022, relocating delivery to Czechia, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, Australia, Montenegro, India and the United States.
• Co-founder and Chairman of the Board of Yarnhub Animation Studios since 2021.

Professional Journey

Puntikov studied economics at Saint Petersburg State University, earning an M.Sc. in 1983. In 1991 he founded his first private software engineering firm. Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it grew into a software services provider to clients in North America and Europe, employing 700 engineers. In 2007 it merged with Exigen Services, and he became CEO of the joint company, running operations of 1,500 staff in six countries across Europe, the Baltics and China.

He has led First Line Software as CEO since 2015, and the company describes him as Chairman of the Board and CEO. It is an engineering services business with more than 15 years of shipping production software, long focused on healthcare, digital experience and ecommerce, and it has been listed repeatedly on IAOP’s Global Outsourcing 100. In 2022, after a strategic review, the company stopped all business operations in Russia with effect from 15 April, separated its Russian subsidiary from the group, and moved delivery to its established centres in Czechia, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands and Australia and to newly opened centres in Montenegro, India and the United States. The company said the separation caused it substantial losses.

Since then First Line Software has recast itself as an AI-first engineering firm, built around a managed AI services offering it calls MAIS. In 2025 it announced partnerships with Parallaxis AI, on data and AI strategy, and with the commercial appraisal firm Valbridge Property Advisors, for which it built appraisal software; Puntikov was quoted on both. Its leadership team is spread from San Francisco to Prague, Sydney and The Hague, with Puntikov based in Cambridge.

Outside First Line Software, he co-founded Yarnhub Animation Studios in 2021 with its CEO David Webb, and serves as its Chairman of the Board, Treasurer and Secretary.

Education

Saint Petersburg State University

M.Sc., Economics, 1979-1983