ORCHID ADVISORS - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Deputy Assistant Director
- Chief Firearms and Explosives Officer
Andrew Graham was appointed as the Deputy Assistant Director, Enforcement Programs and Services (EPS), Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), in May 2020 until retirement in December 2022. Prior to this appointment, he served six years as the Deputy Assistant Director, Industry Operations, Field Operations, from August 2014 - May 2020.
Mr. Graham's 37-year career with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) includes selection as the first Director of Industry Operations (DIO) of the Denver Field Division, the Bureau's 24th field division. In prior leadership positions, in 2004, was appointed as the Area Supervisor in Denver, under the Phoenix Field Division, with oversight of regulatory operations in Colorado, Wyoming and Utah.
In January 2000 Andrew was assigned to ATF's National Academy to oversee new investigator training (Industry Operations Investigator Basic Training). As the senior Program Manager, he had oversight of this training program for 4 years. Mr. Graham began his career with ATF in 1985, while still enlisted in the United States Air Force (Air National Guardsman), entered public service as an intern with the National Firearms Act Branch in Washington, D.C., and in 1986 joined the ATF professional ranks as an Inspector. He executed the Bureaus regulatory mission under both Treasury and the Department of Justice for 14 years in Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi. Mr. Graham's military service includes the United States Air Force (USAF), the District of Columbia Air National Guard, and Tennessee Air National Guard for nine years while serving as a field inspector in Nashville, Tennessee. He attended George Mason University where he was a Business Administration major.
Job Titles:
- Manager, Digital Marketing
Austin has recently joined the Orchid team, bringing over 7 years of digital design, website development, animation and video experience. Working as a freelance artist and with various design agencies, he has been able to develop a deeper understanding of digital media best practices and implementation to ensure long-term goals are achieved.
Job Titles:
- Chief Product Officer, Orchid Pay TM
Chris' payments career began in 2003 when she joined Total Merchant Services. In 2009, she built a product suite supporting small and medium sized businesses. In 2013, Chris joined TSYS as the Director of Product, where she oversaw product strategy for all merchant facing products including security solutions, tablet and e-commerce solutions, terminal offerings. After her promotion to Vice President of Product in 2017, Chris focused on building and executing a strategy to create TSYS' proprietary omni-commerce platform, obtain P2E validation, and launch the extraordinarily successful Vital product suite.
After seven years with TSYS, she joined WorldPay to lead the sales effectiveness team. In this role, Chris led the go-to-market and commercialization strategy for products across all distribution channels in addition to leading the Learning and Development teams. Chris joined Orchid in 2021 as Chief Product Officer to drive innovative solutions and product strategy focused on financial institution and merchant offerings.
Job Titles:
- Vice President of Sales & Marketing
Eric Wille has over 10 years of experience in the firearms industry with a proven track record of success in product management, sales, training, and implementation. Before coming to Orchid, he spent 5 years at Gearfire, most recently as the Director of Retail Product Management.
In this role, he has successfully defined and executed a product roadmap for an industry-leading Retail Management System and Point of Sale processing $1.5 billion in retail transactions in 2022. Eric also served as the Director of Sales for the company, where he executed strategic revenue growth initiatives resulting in a 30% increase in the user base in 2020.
Before joining Gearfire, he oversaw the CLX/Auto Replenishment program at AcuSport as their Implementation Specialist. In this role he worked predominantly with high priority retailers selected by Acusport to help them take full advantage of the program and be successful.
At Orchid, Eric enjoys understanding what issues customers are facing and figuring our how we can simplify that with our portfolio of solutions.
Job Titles:
- Director of Export Services
Practice Areas: Firearm Export (ITAR, EAR, OFAC, CBP)
Job Titles:
- Attorney
- Member of the Industry Relations Committee of the Electronic Transactions Association
Jay was the Business Manager for the Texas Tech Law Review. Following graduation from law school, we worked as a securities and mergers acquisitions attorney at Jackson Walker LLP in Dallas.
Jay is a committee member of the Industry Relations Committee of The Electronic Transactions Association, a former committee member of the Government Relations Committee of The Electronic Transactions Association, and was the Committee Volunteer of the Year with the ETA for 2005-2006.
Job Titles:
- Chief Revenue Officer, Orchid Pay TM
Jeremy has over 10 years of experience where he has worked with some of the largest payment processing providers in the county. He began his payments career at Iron Triangle Payment Systems (ITPS) followed by the National Processing Company. Jeremy has held various positions from Sales to Management in electronic payments and has worked with a number of firearm merchants including retail, eCommerce and manufacturing FFLs. Jeremy has successfully negotiated or renegotiated merchant processing rates and terms and conditions for thousands of businesses across the country saving millions in processing fees to small business owners. Jeremy now leads the sales and implementation efforts for Orchid Pay TM which is focused on credit card processing for the shooting sports industry.
Job Titles:
- Manager, Communications & in - Bound Marketing
Joe recently joined the Orchid team after spending the last four years working in firearms and outdoors media. Armed with a public relations degree and professional experience managing social communities and curating digital content, he has helped brands develop and grow their online presence with creative writing and visuals.
Joe also works part-time at a local gun range / retailer in the Denver, Colo. area where he combines his consumer passion for firearms with an industry understanding of bound book record keeping, firearm transactions, ATF compliance and FFL operations.
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive Officer
- Co - Founder
Jon Rydberg has served as Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Orchid LLC holdings since September 2012. For a portion of this time, he also served as CEO and a financier of the Retail Technology Group. For the last ten years he has been focused on the shooting sports industry where he was an executive at Smith & Wesson Holding Corp and a strategic advisor to FFLs across the U.S. At present, his holdings provide Retail POS software, Manufacturing ERP software, eCommerce applications, integrated FFL compliance software, credit card processing and FFL services delivered via the industry's largest firearm compliance firm.
Previously, Mr. Rydberg was the Chief Marketing Officer of Ticket Network, the 2nd largest online ticket marketplace in the United States. Mr. Rydberg also served as a Managing Director at Protiviti and a Group Manager at Ernst & Young LLP. In the capacity of an executive advisor, Mr. Rydberg helped numerous Fortune 500 companies build stronger supply chain and manufacturing operations through automation and process control. He is known for his expertise in ERP technology, inventory management, process automation and financial and regulatory process control. Mr. Rydberg is the author of several works dedicated to supply chain management, Sarbanes-Oxley, FFL / ATF firearm compliance and he is also the founder of the Firearm Industry Conference.
Job Titles:
- Chief Strategy and Business Development Officer
Michelle is also the country's foremost expert at performing software-driven ATF compliance and electronic A&D / Bound Book evaluations for FFLs, with over 65 million transactions to-date. Her FFL diagnostics include the regulations, processes and systems which drive firearm manufacturing (including NFA), firearm engineering and product master data, customer and vendor FFL master data, firearm transfers (via shipping and receiving), firearm loans (per 2010-1) and import / export transactions, including the ATF Form 6 / 6a. Michelle's assessments have also included major firearm operating systems such as Epicor, SAP, Oracle and many others.
Job Titles:
- Product Manager, Regulated Applications
Sammie Pfeiler has over 15 years of experience most of which has been dedicated to the firearms industry. She has served in a variety of FFL technology-related roles, primarily serving small to some of the largest gun stores and NSSF 5-Star Ranges in the United States. Sammie has been on the front lines of retail software selection, technical support, implementation and now product management. Her experience includes both POS and eCommerce and has now expanded into firearm manufacturing, ammunition, explosives and pawn stores.
Sammie's experience includes working knowledge of all major ATF regulations but especially includes ATF F 4473 (digital and paper formats), NICS background checks, and NFA Forms.
Job Titles:
- Manager of Compliance Solutions
During his time in ATF compliance, Scott has served as the ATF Compliance Coordinator at O.F. Mossberg & Sons, Inc., where he maintained and enhanced the ATF compliance programs through auditing/analyzing existing policies and procedures, implementing new policies and procedures, auditing bound book and inventory, and analyzing existing technologies and implementing new technologies as required. Scott has also created company-wide ATF compliance training programs tailored to meet individual departmental needs.
Job Titles:
- Vice President of Marketing & Implementation
Shaun Phelan has 25 years of leadership experience in operations and marketing positions in public and private organizations. Before coming to Orchid, Shaun spent 14 years at Smith & Wesson working in manufacturing, IT, and marketing.