The FTNI staff and board of directors have over 100 years of combined experience designing, developing and managing solutions for the financial industry.
- William E. Fisher, Chairman
- Kurt M. Matis, President & CEO
- Brian Grier, Chief Technology Officer & Director
- Greg. T. Sloma, Director
- Vance Gardiner, Director
- D. Wayne Kehrli, Director
- Doug Fisher, Executive Vice President
- Tom Schildhauer, Executive Vice President
- Todd Adelgren, Chief Information Officer
- Lyle T. Knox, Vice President Client Relationships
- Chris Thompson, Chief Operations Officer
William E. Fisher – Chairman
Mr. Fisher is an experienced investor, senior executive and public board member. Mr. Fisher currently acts as COO of Sojern, Inc., a digital and print advertising company in partnership with the major US airlines. Prior to this, he served on the board of West, Inc., a multi-billion dollar communication services company (NASDAQ: WTSC:) that was sold to TH Lee in late 2006. He served as the Chairman of the Special Committee that handled the sale.
He is an experienced public company director having also served on the public boards of Bank of America’s Merchant Processing Business (NASDAQ: BAMSI); Trizetto, a leading health care IT provider (NASDAQ: TZIX:); Hypercom, Inc., a leading provider of point-of-sale technology (NASDAQ: HYC); and Transaction Systems Architects, Inc. (NASDAQ: ACIW) a leading provider of software payment technology. Mr. Fisher was the founder of TSAI. Prior to founding TSAI, Mr. Fisher was employed by First Data Resources in a number of roles.
Mr. Fisher holds a BS in Management from Indiana State University and an MBA from the University of Nebraska.
Kurt M. Matis – President & CEO
Mr. Matis brings over 20 years of financial and operational management experience to the company. Prior to founding FTNI, Mr. Matis was a co-founder of L&M Energy Partners, LLC., where he designed and rolled-out the company’s Automated Contract Tracking Software utilized by customers throughout the U.S. From 1999 to 2003, Mr. Matis was the Chief Financial Officer of R.J. Thompson Holdings (RJT), which was acquired by TD Waterhouse. Before his time at RJT, Mr. Matis worked for Data Transmission Network Corporation (DTN) as Director of Finance.
Mr. Matis received his B.S.B.A from the University of Nebraska at Omaha with majors in Finance and Banking, and his MBA from Creighton University, for which he was inducted into the Beta Gamma Sigma Honor Society. Mr. Matis holds a CPA certificate with the State of Nebraska and is a member of the AICPA and the Nebraska Society of CPA’s.
Brian Grier – Chief Technology Officer & Director
Mr. Grier brings over 20 years of software engineering experience in the financial services transaction processing environment to FTNI. Most recently Mr. Grier worked as an independent consultant for American Medical Files, LLC where he helped develop a medical payment processing system to allow direct payments between insurers and medical providers.
Previously, as Vice President of Software Development for R. J. Thompson Holdings (RJT), Mr. Grier was responsible for the client trading software and back-office interface development. Mr. Grier was instrumental in RJT being named as one of Forbes’ magazines “Best of the Web.”
Prior to this, Mr. Grier was one of the founders of InfoComp International, Inc. InfoComp developed a variety of enterprise level applications for its clients, including Securities America and Fahnestock Viner Holdings, a New York-based full-service brokerage.
Mr. Grier received a B.S. in computer science from the University of Nebraska College of Engineering and Technology.
Greg T. Sloma – Director
Mr. Sloma is currently the President of G.O., Inc., a privately held real estate company. From 2004 through 2006, he was the President and CFO for SpeedNet Services, Inc., a privately held Wireless Internet Provider. Prior to SpeedNet, Mr. Sloma held various positions at Data Transmission Network (DTN), a publicly traded electronic information company. During his ten plus years at DTN, his positions included Vice Chairman, Director of Mergers and Acquisitions, Chief Executive Officer, President and Chief Financial Officer.
Prior to joining DTN in April of 1993, Mr. Sloma spent 17 years at Deloitte & Touche, specializing in tax consulting. Mr. Sloma also served on the board of West Corporation and is currently on the board of Transgenomic, Inc. (NASDAQ: TBIO:).
Mr. Sloma received his J.D. degree, cum laude, in Business and Tax Law from the University of Nebraska in 1976, and a B.S.B.A. degree, cum laude, in Accounting from Creighton University in 1973. He is a CPA.
Vance Gardiner – Director
Vance Gardiner has been employed for Tetrad Corporation since 1989. He is responsible for corporate investment objectives, venture capital investments, strategic and financial planning, and tax planning and compliance.
From 1985 to 1989, Mr. Gardiner was Project Manager with Union Pacific railroad in the Planning and Finance Department primarily focused on strategic acquisitions and dispositions.
Mr. Gardiner holds a B.S. in Business-Finance from the University of Utah.
D. Wayne Kehrli – Director
Mr. Kehrli recently retired after forty years in the commercial banking industry. Prior to his retirement, Mr. Kehrli was a regional President with Mutual of Omaha Bank following its acquisition of Nebraska State Bank in 2007.
Prior to its acquisition, Mr. Kehrli held the position of Chairman of the Board, Owner and Chief Executive Officer of the Nebraska State Bank in Omaha, Nebraska for twenty-five years. Prior to joining Nebraska State Bank, Mr. Kehrli served in an executive officer capacity with two other community banks in Nebraska. He has also served on many boards during his career.
Mr. Kehrli graduated cum laude from Wayne State College in Wayne, Nebraska in 1968.
Doug Fisher – Executive Vice President
Doug Fisher is the Executive Vice President for FTNI. Prior to joining FTNI, Mr. Fisher was Vice President of Sales for RDM Corporation, and was a member of the RDM senior executive team. Mr. Fisher was instrumental in developing key customer relationships during his tenure at RDM. Prior to joining RDM, Doug held a number of sales and marketing positions at NCR Corporation and RR Donnelley. He brings in over 18 years of sales and marketing experience from the digital imaging industry. Doug earned a BA in Economics as well as a Master of Business Administration from Wilfrid Laurier University.
Tom Schildhauer – Executive Vice President
Tom Schildhauer has extensive experience helping Clients leverage technology to develop innovative business solutions. He began his career with IBM Corp. where he served as a Finance and Insurance Industry Specialist for thirteen years. In 1989 he joined Norstan Communications where he served as Vice President General Manager of the Midwestern Area until 1999. During the period 2000 to 2003 he provided market development consulting services to Solcom Inc. a venture funded company specializing in electronic medical records. He joined RemitPro in 2004 and led the company effort to launch its check imaging/clearing solution with several major Brokerage Firms and Banks. In 2012, RemitPro was acquired by FTNI and Mr. Schildhauer leads the combined company’s activities in sales and support related to the securities industry.
Todd Adelgren – Chief Information Officer
Todd Adelgren brings 19 years of technology-related experience to FTNI. Mr. Adelgren has experience in all aspects of the software development life cycle including programming, analysis and design as well as the management of software development teams.
Prior to FTNI, Mr. Adelgren performed consulting work for clients such s American Medical Files and L & M Energy Partners, where he designed and built the Automated Contract Tracking System. This system enabled L & M clients to have up-to-the minute information on the status of their propane contracts and positions.
Mr. Adelgren was a Vice President of Software Development for R. J. Thompson Securities (subsequently TD Waterhouse) where his primary responsibilities included the design and implementation of an application used by in-house brokers to manage all activities related to customer accounts and trading. In addition Mr. Adelgren also designed and implemented a system to interface with the Order Audit Trail System used by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) to monitor the trading practices of participating brokerage firms.
Prior to RJT, Mr. Adelgren was one of the founding members of InfoComp International Inc. Infocomp was a start up company that specialized in creating software solutions for the financial services industry. While at InfoComp Mr. Adelgren was responsible for the design and development of a back office system used by Securities America, Inc.
Mr. Adelgren received his B.A. in Math/Computer Science from Midland Lutheran College in Fremont, Nebraska.
Lyle T. Knox – Vice President Client Relationships
Mr. Knox brings over 35 years experience in the financial services industry to the FTNI team. Prior to joining FTNI, Mr. Knox spent nearly 25 years with ACI Worldwide, a leading provider of electronic payments software doing business in over 80 countries. Mr. Knox most recently served as Vice President of Latin American Operations for ACIWW, where the company operates directly and through a network of partners. Previously while with ACIWW, Mr. Knox served in a variety of customer facing management roles in both sales and customer care.
Prior to joining ACIWW, Mr. Knox began his career at Ameritas Insurance Corporation. While at Ameritas, Mr. Knox was instrumental in leading the implementation of a variety of technology tools to support their distributed sales and marketing organization.
Mr. Knox received his B.A. degree in mathematics from Nebraska Wesleyan University.
Chris Thompson – Chief Operations Officer
Mr. Thompson brings over 15 years of operational experience to FTNI. Prior to joining FTNI Mr. Thompson was Trading Manager of Freedom Investments, Inc., a discount brokerage firm located in Omaha, Nebraska. In May of 1999, he joined R.J. Thompson Securities, Inc. as Trading Manager heading up all trading operations for the brokerage firm. In August of 2001 until May 2003, he was Vice President of Operations of R.J. Thompson Securities, Inc. and became a director of RJT.
Mr. Thompson ran the operations of a retail restaurant franchisor, Daddio’s USA, Inc. from May 2003 until January 2006. This entailed day-to-day operational responsibilities and ensuring the employees and/or franchisees had all necessary supplies and training prior to opening new stores.
From January 2006 through December 2008, he was been heading up the operations of American Medical Files LLC, an online medical payments processor. During his tenure with AMF, Mr. Thompson helped design a completely online 835/EOP/EFT Remittance Hub as well as provider and payer desktop products.