team orchid
An NSSF Preferred Vendor and Leaders in FFL Technology, Payments and Firearms Compliance
For over 10 years we’ve been helping the shooting sports industry profitably manufacture, distribute and sell firearms with great efficiency and the utmost compliance.
Orchid’s FFL experts are industry leaders and ready to assist you.
Meet Our Leadership and Subject Matter Experts
Jon Rydberg
Chief Executive Officer
Formerly: Smith & Wesson, Retail Technology Group (RTG / AXIS), Gearfire Payments, Ernst & Young, Protiviti, Ticket Network and United Technologies Corporation
Sample FFL Customers: SCCY Firearms, RemArms, Big 5 Sporting Goods, Adventure Outdoors, Poway Range, Bill’s Gun Shop, North 40 Outfitters, Pawn America, Davidson’s / Gallery of Guns, Sports South, Palmetto State Armory, CZ-USA, SilencerCo, Frontier Justice, Black Wing, Big Rock Sports, and hundreds of others.
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.
Michelle Rydberg
Chief Operating Officer
Formerly: Retail Technology Group, Gearfire Payments, Gearfire, Disney / ESPN, Latham & Watkins, Bank of America, and Cigna Financial Services
Sample FFL Customers: Primary Arms, CZ-USA, Smith & Wesson, EZ-Pawn, Sportsman’s Finest, Frontier Justice, Bi-Mart, and Remington, Big Rock Sports, SilencerCo, Henry Repeating Arms, LL Bean, Gander Mountain and many others.
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
Attorney Philip Milks
Senior Vice President of Regulatory Services
Formerly: Remington Outdoor Company LLC, National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF)
Sample FFL Customers: Brownell’s, Smith & Wesson, Weatherby, Daniel Defense, Trufire Range / Centennial Gun Club, Rock Island Auction, Sportsman’s Guide, Traditions Firearms, Savage Arms, KG Made, Geissele, CZ-USA, FN America and hundreds of others.
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…
Leland Nichols
Chief Strategy and Business Development Officer
Formerly: Smith & Wesson, Remington Arms Company, Shadow Systems, USA Shooting, Rinnai, Airhead Sports Group, Aqua-Leisure Recreation, LLC, Black & Decker, The Stanley Works, Kohler
Sample FFL Customers: Smith & Wesson, Remington Outdoor Company, Bushmaster Firearms, DPMS, Para Ordnance, Barnes Bullets, Magpul Industries Corp., Mec-Gar, Walther Arms, Shadow Systems, Advanced Armament, Baron Engraving, Barrett Firearms, Davidson’s, Lipsey’s, Sports South, Iron Valley Supply, Camfour, Big Rock Sports, RSR Group, Zanders, Armchar Wholesale, Bill Hick’s, Chattanooga Shooting Suppliers, Gunarama Wholesale, North Sylva Company, Shoot Straight, Vance’s Outdoors, H&H Gun Range, Sports World, Hoffman’s, Dunham’s, Duncan’s Outdoor Shop, Adventure Outdoors, Larry’s Pistol & Pawn, Black Wing Shooting Center, Franklin’s Gun Shop, Kittery Trading Post, Bass Pro Shops / Cabela’s, Gander Outdoors, Sportsman’s Warehouse, Academy Sports + Outdoors, Silver Bullet Firearms and many more.
Jason Knowles
Director of Export Services
Practice Areas: Firearm Export (ITAR, EAR, OFAC, CBP)
Formerly: United States Air Force, U.S. State Department, DDTC
Sample FFL Customers: Colt, TXAT, CZ-USA, Leapers, Kimber, Profense, Norma Precision, LMT Defense, Brownell’s and many others
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.
Tim Duffy
Principal, Export Services
Practice Areas: Firearm Export (ITAR, EAR, AECA)
Formerly: U.S. Army, U.S. State Department, DDTC
Sample FFL Customers: Colt, TXAT, CZ-USA, Leapers, Kimber, Profense, Norma Precision, LMT Defense, Brownell’s and many others
Prior to joining Orchid, Tim served at the Department of State’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC) Licensing office as the GS-15 Division Chief for the Space, Missile and Sensor Division, specializing primarily in oversight of licensing and agreement for U.S. Munitions Categories IV, V, XII. In this role, he created office practices for adjudication, trained newly assigned officers and directed the activities of seven Licensing Officers in the issuance of ITAR licenses for export and import of Defense Articles, as well as providing general assistance to the defense trade industry. Most notably, Tim contributed to the newly-published DDTC
Jeremy Crick
Chief Revenue Officer, Orchid PayTM
Formerly: Iron Triangle Payment Systems, National Processing Company
Formerly: SilencerCo, Taurus, Pinnacle Sports, Recoil Gunworks, Chandler Tactical, Ares State Armory, SS Outfitters, YHM and many others
Sample FFL Customers: Colt, TXAT, CZ-USA, Leapers, Kimber, Profense, Norma Precision, LMT Defense, Brownell’s and many others
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…
Chris Ziegler
Chief Revenue Officer, Orchid PayTM
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 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.
Get to Know Orchid
35,000
4473 Processed Per Month
70%
of US Firearms Made by Our Clients
1 Billion+
A&D transactions to-date
$1 Billion
Firearm inventory exported
3
US Gun Friendly Merchant Processing Banks
Experts
in NetSuite, Epicore, Sage, SAP, Fishbowl, more
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Impactful
Innovative
Accomplished
