Leadership

Firethorn is the only mobile financial services enabler with the vision and demonstrated ability to deliver the benefits of true mobile commerce to financial institutions and consumers alike. With deep experience in bank technology and entrepreneurial leadership, Firethorn is led by:

• Tripp Rackley, Chief Executive Officer
• Jeff Hodges, Chief Financial Officer
• Rod Dir, Chief Operating Officer
• Derek Porter, Chief Technology Officer
• Brad Slutsky, General Counsel
• David Vigil, Senior Vice President, Sales
• Chip Fishburne, Senior Vice President, Sales
• Bob Metzler, Senior Vice President, Retail and Merchant Services
• Ben Ackerman, Vice President, Business Development

Tripp Rackley
Chief Executive Officer

Recognized as one of the top three innovators in financial services today by Bank Technology News, Tripp Rackley has served as Chief Executive Officer of Firethorn, a Qualcomm company, since its founding in 2002. He has been a financial services innovator since 1995 when he founded nFront Inc., an online banking services provider that was ultimately sold to Digital Insight, an Intuit company, in 2000. Mr. Rackley served as Vice Chairman of Digital Insight until 2002 when he became entrepreneur-in-residence at Noro-Moseley Partners, where he helped shape the future of many financial services technology companies.

Tripp Rackley sets and directs Firethorn’s strategic vision and mission as a premier mobile commerce enabler. He serves as a driving force behind the technology that powers the Firethorn solution and plays a pivotal role in securing and maintaining strategic partnerships with financial institutions, financial content providers and wireless carriers delivering Firethorn’s solution to the marketplace.

Rackley earned an engineering degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1992 and was named the Ernst & Young 2000 Regional Entrepreneur of the Year. Rackley serves on the Board for the Alexander Tharpe Foundation for his alma mater Georgia Tech, is a member of the Georgia Tech Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE) Advisory Board and was inducted into the Georgia Tech Engineering Hall of Fame.

Jeff Hodges
Chief Financial Officer

Jeff Hodges joined Firethorn as Chief Financial Officer in 2006 and is responsible for overseeing all treasury, budgeting, financial and accounting management, investor relations, internal and external reporting, internal audit, tax and administrative functions. Hodges brings to his role nearly 20 years of finance experience. Prior to Firethorn, Hodges served as CFO and Corporate Secretary for PRESolutions (now InComm), a leading provider of prepaid products.

Hodges also served as CFO and Corporate Secretary of nFront, Inc., a leading provider of full-service Internet banking solutions for financial institutions. Previously, Hodges served as Vice President and Controller of Powertel, where he assisted in the completion of four public and three private debt and equity offerings and participated in mergers and acquisitions.  Hodges was recently named as a finalist in the 2008 Atlanta Business Chronicle CFO of the Year Awards, in the Private Company category.

Earlier in his career, Hodges was an audit manager for Arthur Anderson, where he supervised numerous audit engagements and special projects for technology, telecommunications and electric utility service companies. Hodges is a Certified Public Accountant in Georgia.

Rod Dir
Chief Operating Officer

Rod Dir serves as Chief Operating Officer for Firethorn. As COO, Dir oversees the company’s marketing, product development, customer care, product implementation and service delivery.

Mr. Dir has over 27 years in the telecommunications industry.  Most recently, he served as Chief Operating Officer at Cincinnati Bell, Inc., for all of the company’s business segments, including: wireless, broadband, local access, long distance and data center and managed services. He was responsible for the daily management and performance of consumer and business sales, marketing, product development, engineering, network and customer care operations.

Prior to Cincinnati Bell, Mr. Dir served as Chief Operating Officer of Powertel (now T-Mobile), an Atlanta-based wireless carrier that operated in 12 states and 34 markets throughout the Southeast. For Powertel, Mr. Dir was instrumental in developing the market and growing the company’s subscriber base to over one million subscribers. Mr. Dir also played a significant role in building T-Mobile USA’s nationwide retail business prior to joining Cincinnati Bell.

Mr. Dir currently serves on the board of advisors at the World Children’s Center, a non-profit organization that supports children who have been separated from their parents. A graduate of Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, Mr. Dir holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting.

Derek Porter

Chief Technology Officer

Derek Porter is co-founder and Chief Technology Officer for Firethorn, where he leads the company's product management, engineering, R&D, quality assurance, data management and management information services divisions.

Porter began his career with IBM and after spending five years with the company, left to co-found nFront, Inc., a leading provider of Internet banking solutions for financial institutions. While at nFront, Porter was responsible for the design, development and data center operations of the company's award-winning Internet banking application. Following nFront's acquisition by Digital Insight (now Intuit) in 2000, Porter remained with the California-based company as Vice President of Technology. In this capacity, he served as liaison between various product teams and engineering departments ensuring the design and development of solutions adhered to the corporate technology roadmap. In addition, Porter was involved in the technology review and integration of various corporate acquisitions.

Brad Slutsky

General Counsel

Brad Slutsky serves as General Counsel at Firethorn.  Prior to joining Firethorn, Mr. Slutsky was a partner in the Intellectual Property & Technology Practice Group at King & Spalding – a law firm with more than 800 attorneys that is consistently ranked among the top 50 law firms in the world.  Mr. Slutsky practiced law at King & Spalding for 18 years and served as co-chair for King & Spalding’s Information Technology Practice.  Prior to King & Spalding, Mr. Slutsky clerked for Judge Orinda Evans on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.

As a former computer programmer and frequent speaker and author on Internet and e-commerce issues, Mr. Slutsky brings a wealth of experience to Firethorn’s mobile commerce technology.  He has been recognized by tribunals around the world for his expertise in Internet and intellectual property law, having testified as an expert witness in a domain name case in federal court, serving as a Special Master in a federal court intellectual property case, serving as an arbitrator for the Fulton County Georgia court system, and serving on the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Internet Domain Name Dispute Resolution Panel.

Mr. Slutsky received his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1989 and graduated Magna Cum Laude from Brown University in 1986 with a B.A. in Business Economics.

David Vigil
Senior Vice President, Sales

David L. Vigil is senior vice present of Sales for Firethorn.  As Senior Vice President, Vigil oversees the strategic sales efforts across the entire value chain including Financial Institutions, Carriers and Merchants.

Since joining Qualcomm in 1993, Vigil has served in various capacities, including both financial and business development rolls in South East Asia, Russia / Central Europe and Europe.  His most recent capacity, prior to joining the Firethorn organization, included service strategy and business development efforts, with both the evaluation of new services platforms and segments, and Qualcomm’s approach to entering new markets.  Vigil has served as the Qualcomm executive representative on the board of ‘CTIA – The Wireless Association’ with Tom Wheeler as president and CEO, as well as his successor, Steve Largent.

Vigil holds both a Bachelor of Science in Finance and a master’s degree from San Diego State University.

Chip Fishburne
Senior Vice President
Financial Services

As Senior Vice President of Financial Services, Chip Fishburne is responsible for developing, managing and executing the company's sales and account management strategy for the financial services industry.

Fishburne brings to his role more than 26 years of experience in sales, sales management, service delivery and product marketing.  Prior to Firethorn, he served in increasingly responsible management positions at Unisys, a global technology services company.  At Unisys, Fishburne was the Vice President/General Manager responsible for developing a technology consulting practice for the North American market, specializing in the modernization of IT infrastructures and the virtualization of server infrastructures.  Fishburne also has over 20 years of experience in the payment and transaction processing industries. 

Fishburne holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Appalachian State University.

Bob Metzler

Senior Vice President

Retail and Merchant Services

As the Senior Vice President of Retail and Merchant Services, Bob Metzler is responsible for all aspects of the development and execution of the mobile commerce business plan for Retail and Merchant Services.

Prior to Firethorn, Mr. Metzler was Vice President of T-Mobile HotSpot, a division of T-Mobile USA, where he managed sales, business development and product development for the 9,000 node Wi-Fi network.  During his four years at T-Mobile, the number of HotSpot customers grew to over 1 million customers. 

Prior to T-Mobile, Metzler was Vice President of US Sales and Service for 3Com where he led the US sales and channel teams.  3Com is a global provider of enterprise and small-business networking solutions that enable the convergence of applications and emerging technologies into the network.

Metzler obtained a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Management from Georgia Institute of Technology.

Ben Ackerman
Vice President, Business Development

Ben Ackerman currently serves as Vice President of Business Development responsible for Firethorn’s overall strategic planning and execution for the company as well as strategic alliances.  Joining Firethorn in late 2005, Mr. Ackerman was instrumental in developing the company’s go-to-market strategy and also executed key partnerships with many of the nation’s leading wireless carriers.  Ackerman established the company’s Office of Project Management, Customer Service and Training divisions and spearheaded the company’s first live implementation of the Firethorn Solution in March of 2007. 

Prior to Firethorn, Mr. Ackerman served as Director of Business Development for BroadSource, a leading provider of telecom expense solutions, where he managed the company's strategic alliance development.

Previously for an Atlanta-based science and technology firm, Ackerman was a senior director and part of the executive management team where he was responsible for strategy development, information technology, and overseeing all aspects of company operations.

Mr. Ackerman obtained his Bachelor of Science in Ceramic Engineering from Clemson University and his MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management.