The Leading FFL Technology, Payments & Compliance Solution

Jon Rydberg

Chief Executive Officer

Formerly: Retail Technology Group, Gearfire Payments, Smith & Wesson, Ernst & Young, Protiviti, Ticket Network and United Technologies Corporation 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. Jon is proud to have served hundreds of FFLs including organizations such as SCCY Firearms, RemArms, Big 5 Sporting Goods, Adventure Outdoors, Poway Range, Bill’s Gun Shop, Davidson’s / Gallery of Guns, Sports South and many others.

Michelle Rydberg

Chief Operating Officer

Formerly: Retail Technology Group, Gearfire Payments, Gearfire, Disney / ESPN, Latham & Watkins, Bank of America, and Cigna Financial Services Michelle has over 20 years of experience in finance, accounting and technology. Previously, Michelle served as the Chief Marketing Officer of the Retail Technology Group , Outdoor Payment Solutions (DBA Gearfire Payments) and Gearfire LLC. 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. Michelle is proud to have delivered technology and ATF services to retail and manufacturing FFLs including Primary Arms, CZ-USA, Smith & Wesson, EZ-Pawn, Bi-Mart, and Remington, Big Rock Sports, SilencerCo, Henry Repeating Arms, LL Bean, Gander Mountain and many others.

Jay Reeves

General Counsel

Formerly: Chase Paymentech Jay served over nine years with Chase Paymentech, one of the world’s largest payment processors, as their Associate General Counsel. During that time, he negotiated and documented the acquisition of numerous payment processing companies and their merchant portfolios. His responsibilities also included legal oversight of all Chase Paymentech strategic partner relationships (ISOs, Agent Banks, Processors). Jay has successfully negotiated hundreds of merchant agreements with some of the world’s largest companies and crafted numerous strategic partner relationship agreements with ISOs, Agent Banks, Processors and VARs. 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.

Leland Nichols

Chief of Strategy and Business Development

Formerly: Black & Decker, The Stanley Works, Kohler, USA Shooting, Smith & Wesson, Rinnai, Remington Arms Company, Airhead Sports Group, Aqua-Leisure Recreation, LLC, Shadow Systems Leland served in the residential and commercial construction products market from 1984 through 2004 in executive roles including Vice President, Product Management, Professional Power Tools for Black & Decker where he led the launch of the DeWalt portable power tool brand in North America, Asia, the Middle East and Africa. His experience also includes roles as President, Stanley Hardware, Executive Vice President, Kohler Company and Vice President, Sales & Business Development with Rinnai America. Leland began his career in outdoor recreation / hunting / shooting products with Smith & Wesson from 2005 – 2011 as President and Chief Operating Officer. Under his leadership, S&W successfully developed and launched the M&P pistol and M&P rifle product range. Following his tenure with S&W, he served at Remington Outdoor Company from 2012 – 2017 as Vice President and General Manger for Firearms and Accessories. Most recently, prior to Orchid Advisors, Leland led Airhead Sports Group as the President and Chief Operating Officer executing a doubling of EBITDA and a successful sales transaction as the company was acquired by Aqua Leisure Recreation and Blackford Capital. He is a strong advocate of the 2nd Amendment and enjoys a broad range of outdoor recreational actives including competitive shooting, hunting, boating and motor sports.

Andrew R. Graham

Chief, Firearms and Explosives Officer

Formerly: Deputy Assistant Director, Enforcement Programs and Services (EPS), ATF 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.

Jeremy Crick

Chief Revenue Officer, Orchid Pay^TM

Formerly: Iron Triangle Payment Systems, National Processing Company, ZirMed 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 PayTM which is focused on credit card processing for the shooting sports industry.

Chris Zielger

Chief Product Officer

Formerly: TSYS, WorldPay

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 merchantfacing 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.

Philip Milks

Vice President of Regulatory Services

Formerly: Remington Outdoor Company LLC, National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF)ZirMed

Phil is an attorney and was formerly employed by the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) and Remington Outdoor Company (ROC). While at Remington, Phil served his executive peers as the leader of ROC’s corporate compliance function, which included ATF, Import, and Export (ITAR and EAR). Phil played a key role in advising ROC and its subcontract manufacturers in the development of ammunition, suppressors, polymer pistols, modern sporting rifles and imported shotguns. Phil gained relevant legal and regulatory experience facilitating the acquisition of manufacturing entities, the move of major manufacturing facilities to the southern U.S. and implementing SAP as a leading ERP system. Phil had numerous professional interactions with national and local ATF leadership and responded to a multitude of high volume serial number ATF inspections.

Jason Knowles

Director of Export Services

Formerly: United States Air Force, U.S. State Department, DDTC

As a former DDTC Senior Defense Trade Control Analyst, a U.S. Air Force retired combat veteran, and a U.S. Export Control and Compliance consultant across multiple industries, Jason brings an uncommon depth of ITAR and EAR understanding, awareness of related U.S. government processing, military applications, and an ability to span, connect, and implement strategy to task and back across business activities related to U.S. regulatory export control and compliance. While with the State Department, Jason reviewed and audited ITAR export applications with a combined value of over $42.5 Billion for approval and/or compliance. He renovated ITAR Agreement analyst training and improved ITAR Agreement analyst review processes and tools. Also, Jason frequently spoke on behalf of the U.S. government to U.S. and foreign government officials and industry groups and individuals. Since departing the DDTC, and in addition to providing ITAR control, compliance, authorization advice and other DDTC engagement services, he has developed EAR and BIS-related expertise to expert levels so to support multi-jurisdictional control, compliance, and export authorization strategy development, assist with implementing those strategies, and in the development, assessment, and improvement of compliance programs. Jason’s experiences and expertise include the ITAR, EAR, OFAC and export related elements of U.S. Customs and Border Protection processes.

Shaun Phelan

Vice President of Marketing & Implementation

Formerly: Smith & Wesson Firearms

Shaun Phelan has almost 25 years of experience in operations and marketing positions and has spent the last 14 years at Smith & Wesson. While working in manufacturing, Shaun used his kaizen experience to repeatedly surpass manufacturing targets while meeting and exceeding quality and cost goals. Later Shaun led the SAP Center of Excellence team during the final phases of a full SAP implementation and effectively managed on-site, near-shore and off-shore resources to drive user adoption across four locations. In his last assignment, Shaun developed the new Sales and Marketing Operations group. The customer-focused group supported brand and sales leaders in driving product awareness across all channels. Shaun drove new efficiencies and cost savings through the implementation of new technology and data-driven decision making. His specialties include strategic marketing, media relations, advertising, event planning and execution, internet and email marketing, and branding and creative development.

Scott Grigerek

Manager of Compliance Solutions

Formerly: Hoffman’s Gun Center/Range – Retail & LE/NFA Sales, O.F. Mossberg & Sons, Inc – ATF Compliance Scott brings 15 years of experience through various positions in the firearms industry. These positions span from retail sales, NFA sales, and retail sales/range management to ATF compliance and ATF compliance management. 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. Scott is proud to have implemented Orchid eBound and provided ATF compliance services to numerous FFLs including Palmetto (manufacturing, distribution and retail),

Sammie Pfeiler

Product Manager, Regulated Applications

Formerly: Gearfire, Retail Technology Group, Verizon

Sammie Pfeiler has recently joined the Orchid team, bringing over 15 years of experience working in the customer service industry and four years in the firearms industry. She has worked hand in hand with companies to ensure accuracy and efficiency in their daily routines, as well as providing in depth training and resolving technical issues. Her current role provides her the ability to work with development, implementation, and customers to ensure that Orchid is exceeding all of their expectations.

Nicholas DiDato

Implementation Manager

Formerly: Blue Trail Shooting Range, Lyman Orchards A recent graduate of Assumption College, Nick brings his talented graphic design and marketing skills and experience to the Orchid team. He enjoys his current role of Digital Marketing Analyst where he has an impact on making sure the firearms industry stays safe and compliant.

Joe Kriz

Communications & In-Bound Marketing Manager

Formerly: Laura Burgess Marketing, Outdoor Sportsman Group, FMG Publications 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 recordkeeping, firearm transactions, ATF compliance and FFL operations.

Austin Alterio

Website, Graphics and Video Specialist

Formerly: Telegraphic Branding & Design

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.