Our Leadership
The people behind Fullsteam come from diverse backgrounds in payments, finance, and software. Our team has the experience and knowledge to help you grow your business faster than ever before. If you are an experienced M&A professional, or have a background in payments technology, and are interested in working at Fullsteam, please reach out to contact@fullsteam.com.
Michael A. Lawler
CEO
Michael A. Lawler became the CEO of Fullsteam in April 2018. Prior to this, Michael was the President-Strategic Markets Group at Heartland Payment Systems (NYSE: HPY) from June 2012 to April 2016, before the acquisition of Heartland by Global Payments.
Michael was responsible for leading the company’s presence in various vertical markets including K-12, higher education, micropayments, biller direct, petroleum, e-commerce and other segments of the company’s SME payment processing. In addition, he was responsible for most of the company’s M&A during his tenure. Prior to becoming President, he served in other positions at Heartland including Chief of Corporate Development, Executive Director and as a consultant since October 2008.
Before joining Heartland, Michael served as Senior Vice President at Official Payments (OPC) from June 2004 to September 2008. At OPC, he was responsible for the combined operation of OPC and EPOS, subsidiaries of Tier Technologies (Nasdaq: TIER) and its payment processing service for government, utility and education clients.
Prior to taking over the leadership at OPC, he served as President of EPOS Corporation from November 1989 and its Chairman from September 1991 to June 2004. He joined EPOS in 1987. At EPOS, he was responsible for the company’s payment processing and telephony products.
Michael earned a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering and a Master of Science in Computer Science from Auburn University.
Payments and Operations
Ron Farmer
COO
Ron Farmer joined Fullsteam as Chief Operating Officer in February 2019. Prior to Fullsteam, he was President, Campus Solutions Group for Global Payments, where he led over 500 employees in the Higher Education and Unattended Payments vertical markets.
Prior to Global Payments, he was Senior Vice President of Campus Solutions and MicroPayments for Heartland Payment Systems, which was acquired by Global in April 2016. During his tenure at Heartland, he led a team that grew from 30 employees when he joined in 2007, to over 450 by the time of the Global Payments acquisition. While at Heartland, Ron participated in five acquisitions and led the integration of each company.
Ron has developed a reputation as a leader who listens intently to newly acquired companies. He works closely with the management teams of those companies to protect the good things about those companies while focusing on how to grow the business. Ron takes it as part of his mandate to protect the culture of acquired companies.
Prior to Heartland, Ron was CEO of Revenue Technologies, a price management software firm which was acquired by Oracle in 2007. From early 1995 to late 1999, Ron was President of Debitek, an early-stage stored value payments company which today is Heartland MicroPayments, one of the divisions Ron oversaw for Heartland/Gobal.
Ron started his software career at Oracle, where in a 5-year period he rose from sales rep to Area Sales Manager to Regional Sales Manager to Group Director, including being named Oracle’s Sales Manager of the year for 1991 at 242% of quota. He also received Oracle’s “Largest Deal Award” for 1992 for leading the team that closed a $37 million contract, Oracle’s largest deal ever at the time.
Ron holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business from Virginia Tech, and a Master of Management from the J.L Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.
Sri Racherla
Group VP, Payments
Sri Racherla leads the Payments Sales, Product Management and Portfolio Integration teams at Fullsteam. He joined Fullsteam as Group Vice President of Payments in December 2019.
Prior to Fullsteam, he was Vice President of Client Experience and Payment Operations at Freedom Financial Network, where he led more than 600 employees in the areas of Client Experience, Underwriting, Payment Operations and Payments Servicing.
Prior to Freedom Financial Network, he was Vice President of Operations at Heartland School Solutions, which was acquired by Global Payments in 2016. At Heartland School Solutions, he managed the Client Services teams which included Customer Service, Professional Services and Enterprise Product Management. At Heartland School Solutions, prior to Operations role, he served as Vice President of Research and Development, during which he led software development teams that built SaaS and eCommerce Payments products. While at Heartland School Solutions, he participated in acquisition and integration of six companies.
Sri graduated from the University of South Alabama with an M.S. in Computers and Information Sciences. He also earned an M.B.A. from Osmania University, B.Tech from University of British Columbia and B.S from Osmania University, India.
Emily Traylor
Dir. of Prod. Mgmt. & Integration
Emily Traylor joined Fullsteam in February 2019 and serves as Director of Fullsteam Product Management and Portfolio Integration. In this role, Emily leads the product management for Fullsteam's payments platform as well as the technical integration for Fullsteam's portfolio of companies.
Emily has a decade of experience in the financial services industry, with experiences spanning multiple areas of IT and operations. Her roles and responsibilities have included DevOps, QA, project and product management, and team development and leadership. She has significant experience in Agile and Lean methodologies and is a Certified Scrum Master.
Prior to joining Fullsteam, Emily worked for Equifax, where she served as Release Engineering Leader and Deputy Director for the Equifax Auburn Technology Center. In this position, she was responsible for a global private cloud migration effort from a CI/CD, Release Management, and process standardization perspective. She also played an integral role in building the Equifax Auburn Technology Center as a talent incubator for the company. Prior to Equifax, Emily held QA and/or software development roles at Heartland Payment Systems, TSYS, and Computer Technology Solutions. Emily graduated summa cum laude from Auburn University with a Bachelor of Wireless Software Engineering (2010) and is a current Executive MBA candidate at Auburn University.
She currently serves on the Auburn University Wireless Engineering Advisory Board, is Vice Chair of the Auburn University Engineering Young Alumni Council, and is a member and mentor through 100+ Women Strong in Engineering. Emily chaired the 100+ Women Strong Leadership and Development Conference at Auburn University in 2018 and 2019 and is passionate about encouraging women to pursue STEM careers.
Will Brinkley
Dir. of Payments and Mkt.
Will Brinkley joined Fullsteam as Director of Payments and Marketing in June 2018. With more than 20-years experience as a writer, communicator and marketing professional, Will has created and managed content across multiple platforms including print, web, video and social media.
In his previous role with Heartland Payment Systems, Will produced internal content and external marketing collateral to support a nationwide team of more than 1,000 sales professionals. Serving as a subject-matter expert for Heartland’s Billing Solutions group, Will provided presentation decks, technical sales support and pricing guidance for the Major Accounts team as well as Billing partnership opportunities. With more than 10 years in the payments industry, Will has in-depth knowledge of credit card brand and NACHA rules and regulations and served as a liaison between Heartland Sales, Development and Compliance teams to ensure Billing Solutions merchants maintained compliance with intricate industry requirements.
During his tenure with Heartland and at Official Payments Corp. from 2006-2011, Will managed hundreds of RFP, RFQ and RFI responses for local, state and federal government entities as well as K-12 and higher education schools and school districts.
Will earned two degrees from Auburn University, a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism (1998) and a Master of Technical and Professional Communication (2006).
Drew Brucker
Dir. of Digital Mkt.
Drew Brucker serves as the Portfolio Marketing Leader, tasked with driving lead generation and revenue growth for Fullsteam's portfolio of SaaS businesses. He joined Fullsteam as Director of Digital Marketing in March 2020.
Prior to Fullsteam, he was the Head of Brand & Digital at Rubicon – an Atlanta tech company that uses technology to drive environmental innovation. There he transformed the marketing organization, creating a holistic inbound marketing strategy that leveraged awareness, growth, and retention. Additionally, he quarterbacked a comprehensive and complete re-design of both the Rubicon brand and its website (UI/UX) that accelerated Rubicon into its future initiatives.
Outside of Drew's direct and full-time involvement in the tech and SaaS space, he's served as a Marketing Consultant/Advisor for several organizations and agencies in a freelance capacity.
From a Marketing lens, Drew's expertise lies heavily in content, search engine optimization, website UI/UX, email, social media, search engine marketing, and lead generation/growth .
When not working to optimize and grow Fullsteam's marketing efforts, he can be found taking photos, watching/playing sports, traveling the world with his wife, going on long hikes with his dogs, and taking on new hobbies/interests. Drew was raised in the St. Louis metro area and is a graduate of Missouri State University's College of Business where he focused on business, marketing, and sports/entertainment management.
Liz Gregg
Dir. of Payment Services
Liz Gregg joined Fullsteam as Director of Payment Services in October 2018. Prior to Fullsteam, she worked for Official Payments/ACI Worldwide for 18 years, in a variety of roles from staff accountant, client and operations accounting, exception management, vendor management and merchant ID acquisitions. Liz was responsible for the consolidation of two Client Service call centers and management of the Client Service team who handled 3,000+ clients within federal, state and local governments, municipal utilities, higher education, and charitable giving organizations.
She received her BS in Accounting/Business Management from Troy State University and has worked in the banking, hospitality, government and payment processing businesses.
Accounting, Finance and HR
David Pincus
CFO
David Pincus joined Fullsteam as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) in August 2018, overseeing the company’s Finance and Human Resources activities.
David has more than 25 years of domestic and international financial and operational leadership experience in a combination of multinational, private equity and venture capital funded businesses and has also served as the CFO of a Private Equity fund. He has held key positions within the technology, medical device, manufacturing, publishing and direct marketing spaces. In these roles, David was responsible for the Finance, IT, Legal and Human Resources groups in a range of situations, having also raised capital through debt and equity strategies and sold companies to strategic acquirers.
Most recently, David was the CFO of Pilgrim Quality Solutions and Liquent prior to that, both private-equity owned, Healthcare IT companies and each acquired by a strategic, publicly traded multinational company.
David earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Toronto and is both a CPA and Chartered Accountant (Canada). He began his career at the Toronto office of Ernst & Young.
Chris Blum
Sr. Dir. of Finance & Acct.
Chris Blum is Fullsteam's Senior Director of Finance & Accounting and oversees the FP&A, Portfolio Company Finance, and Corporate Accounting teams.
Chris joined Fullsteam in January 2019 as Director of FP&A, and previously he spent four and a half years in various corporate finance roles. Before going into industry, Chris began his career in professional services, spending three “busy-seasons” as an auditor and then more than a year in Transaction Advisory Services focusing on financial due diligence.
Chris graduated from Bentley University in 2010 with a B.S. in Accounting. He also has his CPA license from the state of Massachusetts.
Denise Schnier
Dir. of Finance
Denise Schnier joined Fullsteam as the Director of Finance in September 2019. Denise leads the financial systems integration activity as well as related process development.
Denise has more than 25 years of experience in Finance, including 11 years with software and services companies. Prior to Fullsteam, she was the Controller and Director of Financial Planning & Analysis with Pilgrim Quality Solutions, a private equity backed company.
Denise received her Bachelors in Accounting from Midway University and Masters in Accounting from St. Leo University. When not at work, Denise and her husband enjoy traveling the world in their spare time. Saturdays are reserved for the Florida Gators – chomp on!
Keith W. Abraben
Dir. of Corporate HR
Keith W. Abraben joined Fullsteam as Director of Corporate Human Resources in November 2018. Keith has more than 40-years experience in strategic global human resources, total rewards, compensation, leadership training, employee relations, talent acquisition, payroll and O/D in the Software IOT and transportaion markets.
Prior to joining Fullsteam, Keith was Vice President of Corporate Global Human Resources for Hitachi Vantara (Previously known as Pentaho Corp.). Building human resources infrastructure from scratch during the past 40 years in both software and transportation industries has afforded Keith the ability as a strategic business partner to scale early stage startups quickly while remaining true to the cultural identity and vision of the founder and the leadership team.
Keith graduated from Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, FL, in 1976 with a B.A. Degree in Business.
Product Development
Fred Byrd
CTO
James F. (Fred) Byrd joined Fullsteam as CTO in June 2018. Previously Fred was Sr. Director of Operations and Director of Product Development for the Heartland Payments Systems (HPY) Billing Solutions business unit from 2011 to 2018. During his tenure at Heartland he was responsible for the design, architecture and development of the Biller Direct credit card and ACH payment platform targeting government entities, utilities, medical practices and various other service verticals.
Prior to joining Heartland, from 2004-2011, Fred was the director of Product Development and the Director of QA for Official Payments (OPC). In 1981, Fred was a principal founder of EPOS Corporation and served in various roles including Executive Vice President and CTO. Fred has 20-years experience with payment processing across multiple channels such as Web UI, Web Services, IVR, POS and IOT.
During his career, Fred was involved in designing systems to meet industry compliance including the latest PCI-DSS specifications, NACHA requirements, Federal regulations such a Regulation “E” and various Personal Data Privacy rules. These payments systems were designed to be both scalable and available with an emphasis on data integrity.
Fred has served on the advisory board for three local banks and has a US Patent for work performed as a consultant for EPOS Corporation. Fred received his Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering in 1981 and a Master of Electrical Engineering in 1982, both from Auburn University.
Adam Maddox
Dir. of Product Dev.
Adam Maddox joined Fullsteam as Director of Product Development in June 2018 with 14 years of experience creating software solutions in the payment processing and customer relationship management industries.
In his previous role as the Development Manager for Heartland Payment Systems’ Billing Solutions platform, Adam oversaw the ground-up development of a Biller Direct payments platform that rapidly grew to support more than 7,000 merchants and process $5 billion in annual processing volume. Through his work at Heartland, Adam gathered extensive experience and knowledge across the different components of payment processing including PCI/Security, uptime management, point-of-sale and terminal devices, EMV, card-not-present solutions and interchange pricing analysis.
Before Heartland, Adam worked at Informatix and Tier Technologies, creating software and technology to support child support payment collection and customer relationship management for state governments. Adam earned a Bachelor of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Auburn University (2004).
Jon Armstrong
Dir. of IT & Security
Jon Armstrong joined Fullsteam as Director of IT & Security in June 2018. Jon has worked in the payments industry for more than 8 years with a wide range of roles and responsibility.
At his previous position with Heartland Payment Systems, Jon developed and managed the ACH Processing Gateway which quickly grew to more than $8 billion in annual volume. During his efforts at Heartland, Jon gained extensive experience in team management, product management, project management, systems automation, deployment automation, process automation, build automation, code-quality management, treasury management, accounts receivables, NACHA compliance & regulations, and PCI procedures.
Before working at Heartland, Jon worked at Tier Technologies, supporting and developing software that serviced a wide number of verticals. Immediately after graduation, Jon worked at a local software development company writing construction project management software, CRM and contracts management.
Jon earned a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Auburn University in 2006.
Ed Graf
Dir.of Compliance and Contracts
Edward R. (Ed) Graf joined Fullsteam as Director of Compliance and Contracts in August 2018. Previously Ed was Director, Contracts, AML for Heartland Payments Systems (HPY). During his tenure at Heartland he was the AML Officer and advised in matters of regulatory compliance. He also served as Director for contracts, primarily public entities, such as universities, school districts, and city and state governments.
Prior to joining Heartland, from 2004-2012, Ed established and managed a Money Transmitter program for Official Payments (OPC). Ed joined EPOS Corporation in 1987, upon retiring as Professor of Electrical Engineering from Auburn University, and served in various roles, including contracts and sales, until EPOS was sold in 2004.
Ed received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from Auburn University, a PHD (Electrical Engineering) from the University of Stuttgart, Germany, and a EJD in 2010 from Purdue University Global.
M&A
Gregory Colella
VP of M&A
Greg Colella leads the M&A team at Fullsteam and emphasizes transparency and clarity while communicating with CEOs. He has worked as a Director of Finance and Operations for a medium sized software company (Tinypass, acquired by Piano Media) and was most recently a software investor at Susquehanna Growth Equity where he focused on industrial, logistics, and payments technology.
He is also a Captain in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard and commands the oldest continuously service cavalry unit, The First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry, currently designated Alpha Troop, 1/104 CAV, founded in 1774.
Greg graduated from Princeton University in 2012 with an A.B. in International Affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School and holds a Certificate from the East Asian Studies Department.
Xander Berry
M&A
Xander Berry joined the Fullsteam Corporate Development team in November 2018. Prior to joining Fullsteam, he spent five years at GCA Advisors where he advised growth-stage technology companies in the software, financial technology, and digital media sectors. Responsible for executing M&A and private capital raising engagements, Xander worked closely with client management teams to optimize value for shareholders. His clients included Bazaarvoice, TouchBistro, Capsilon, and Operative, among others.
He graduated magna cum laude from Lehigh University in 2013 with a B.S. from the Integrated Business & Engineering honors program.
Connor Cook
M&A
Connor Cook joined the Fullsteam Corporate Development team in January 2021.
Prior to joining Fullsteam, he worked on the Corporate Development team at Change Healthcare, a provider of healthcare technology to payers, providers, and patients. At Change, he focused on M&A and strategic partnerships specifically in the value-based care, medical imaging, hospital analytics, and consumer engagement spaces. He also supported in IPO readiness efforts to take the formally Blackstone owned company public.
In his free time, Connor enjoys playing the guitar and being outdoors. Connor graduated from the University of Arkansas where he received B.S. and B.A degrees in Finance and Accounting.
Shane Ecclesine
M&A
Shane Ecclesine joined the Fullsteam Corporate Development team in July 2018 after spending two years in a partnerships role at Jopwell, a venture-backed technology recruiting company. Responsible for building relationships with the leading brands across corporate America, Shane helped the business secure a Series A round of funding in early 2018.
Prior to working with Jopwell, Shane began his career at UBS as an analyst in the rotational Wealth Management Americas Graduate Training Program followed by a two-year stint as a Wealth Planning Analyst, where he served as a financial planning consultant to an office of 50+ financial advisors.
He graduated cum laude from Wake Forest University in 2011 with a B.A. in Classical Studies.
Eric Holzhauer
M&A
Eric Holzhauer joined the Fullsteam Corporate Development team in April 2019.
Prior to joining Fullsteam, Eric worked at Waypoint Leasing for four years as the Commercial and Corporate Development Manager aiding in AUM growth from $500 million to $1.6 billion.
Subsequent to Waypoint, he worked for three years at Bank of America as an Assistant VP in the Middle Market Commercial Lending group. Eric graduated from the University of Connecticut in 2011 with a B.S in Finance.
David Ibarra
M&A
David Ibarra joined the Fullsteam Corporate Development team in January 2019. Prior to joining Fullsteam, he worked on the Corporate Strategy & Development team at VICE Media where he was responsible for executing acquisitions, joint ventures, and strategic investments. Before his work with VICE, David spent two years at GCA Advisors where he advised growth-stage technology companies in the software and digital media sectors.
David graduated from the University of Pennsylvania where he received his B.S.E. in Systems Engineering and a minor in Computer Science.
John Stroud
M&A
John Stroud graduated from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business and joined the Corporate Development team at Fullsteam in July, 2018. While at Michigan, John was a leader in the Social Venture Fund and the Zell Lurie Institute, in which he cultivated an interest in tech and entrepreneurship. He was also a Ross fellowship recipient and was inducted into the Beta Gamma Sigma Honor Society for recognition of being within the top 10% of his graduating class. In his free time, John is an avid reader and runner.
Our Philosophy
Platform Vision
We are a family of technology and software companies in multiple verticals whose leaders are aligned to grow their top and bottom lines as shareholders of Fullsteam. Our business leaders proactively communicate with others in the company to share best practices and approach vertical markets collectively.
Payments + Software
We believe that payments and software are a powerful combination, and that credit card and ACH processing can be profit centers for software companies. Our specialized team has the expertise to unlock that potential for all Fullsteam companies.