OUR STORY
OUR STORY
Southeast Acquirers Association, Incorporated, is a non-membership, 501(c)(6) trade association. SEAA was formed in 2000 and produced the first SEAA Annual Conference in 2001. Since that time, SEAA has hosted thousands of industry professionals and presented hundreds of hours of education networking with the top vendors in electronic payments.
Audrey Blackmon, Judy Foster and John McCormick formed SEAA to facilitate the growth of the electronic payments industry, in size and integrity, through training, education and networking with other industry professionals.
About
OUR TEAM
Board of Directors
Judy is a Founder and serves as Board Member. Judy has been in the payments industry since 1990 selling merchant processing services to Atlanta based merchants. In 1998 Judy changed her career path and began selling hardware to ISO’s and FI’s. She sold for several global hardware companies including Thales and Ingenico. After 30 successful years in the payment industry, Judy semi-retired in 2019. Judy has parlayed her industry skills and currently consults for companies in the payments industry. She is single, and very career oriented. Founded the SEAA with fellow Board Members, John McCormick and Audrey Blackmon, and was founding President for the first 3 years. Judy is an active advocate for various animal shelters in the Atlanta community.
Judy Foster
RISE Strategic Group
John is a Founder and serves as a Board Member. He spent 3 years with Arthur Andersen & Co. before returning to law school and joining General Credit Forms. Active with General Credit Forms since 1995, He has spent his time working on marketing and sales strategies with GCF, as well as assisting with the acquisitions of the McCormick Portfolio of Businesses. Married, to Stephane. His greatest achievement is not killing Dee Karawadra while on the side of Kilimanjaro with him in January 2013.
John McCormick
General Credit Forms, Inc.
Terry has been in the Payments industry since 1993. She began her career as a sales representative for Aurora Merchant Systems, selling credit card equipment and terminal repair services to ISOs and Banks across the United States. In 2000 she became a founding member and Director of Sales at POS Portal, selling contract deployment services and a software management solutions to some of the industry’s largest acquirers. In 2011, Terry joined St. Louis based Processor, Clearent, as VP Business Development. Terry and her family reside in Sacramento, CA. She enjoys travel, home projects and time with family and friends. Terry has served as a member of the SEAA Board of Directors since 2015, after serving for several years on the SEAA Advisory Committee.
Terry Nawara
Clearent
Jamie has been in the payments industry since 1995. Her path into this industry started by working part-time, while in college, at a call center for private label credit cards, and doing credit line increases for Discover card. In 1997, Jamie came over to the acquiring side and went to work for NOVA (now Elavon). From there she has worked in Account Management, Sales, and Recruiting for various top processors and ISOs such as Global Payments, Comdata, FNBO/TSYS, TNS, and Transfirst, to name a few. Jamie is currently working as Director of Partner Sales at Secure Bancard.
Jamie Garfield
Pioneer by Settlement Data Systems
Derek has over 20 years of experience in the payments industry, starting his career with NPC and transitioning over to ABNAmro Merchant Services, Comdata, Payment Alliance, and Planet Payment. At these companies, he has held leadership positions in Relationship Management, Sales, and Operations. He is currently enjoying his position with award-winning Aliaswire and continues to serve on the SEAA Board of Directors. Derek has been with SEAA since 2007, and has been a past president, managed the registration process, the agenda, and has been in charge of the hotel site-selection since 2015. Derek is married and currently resides in Louisville, Kentucky with their 4 dogs. Derek is an avid traveler and will hop on a plane as soon as you ask him or fill up the car with gas for a road trip. Since he is a true southern gentleman at heart most people envy his garden!
Derek Vowels
Aliaswire
Advisory Committee
Since joining the industry in 2002, Andrew has been responsible for initiating and refining relationships with ISOs to drive business. Andrew has extensive experience in sales and sales management in merchant processing and related financial products as well. Andrew is a Certified Payment Professional (CPP) and serves as an Advisory Board Member for The Green Sheet.
Andrew Altschuler
GRP Funding
Andie has been in the payment solutions business since late 2003. In April 2011, she joined the NPC/Vantiv family. Andie is responsible for identifying and implementing sales opportunities within the company. Previously focused on the NPC ISO channel, Andie currently works with multiple partner channels within Vantiv to drive and implement business sales strategies. Prior to joining the Vantiv team, she served as a Regional Business Director at First Data. A die-hard LSU Tiger fan, Andie and her husband have 2 children and live outside of Baton Rouge Louisiana. Along with being a past President’s Club recipient, Andie is a Certified Payments Professional and holds membership in the Electronic Transaction Association, Vantiv Women's Business Network, W.net, Women Networking in Electronic Transactions. She is also a current member of the Greensheet Advisory Board.
Andie Kolb
Visa
Jill is an attorney and member at Bodman PLC, where she maintains a national practice advising clients in the electronic payments processing industry on contractual and regulatory matters with a particular focus on privacy and cybersecurity laws. She is the chair of Bodman’s Data Privacy and Security Practice Group. She is passionate about her clients and their success. She has been counseling ISOs, Agents, software companies, gateway companies, card brands and other payment system businesses for 15 years. Jill and her husband Mike and daughter Kate live in Canton, Michigan.
Jill Miller
Bodman PLC
John Shipley is an SVP of Third Party Relationships with St Louis based processor, Clearent. Prior to joining Clearent in 2017 he was Vice President of Operations for Payment Alliance International (PAI), the winner of the 2011 ISO of the Year award from the Electronic Transactions Association (ETA). He’s been in the payments industry since 1992 and has held prior management positions at Comdata, Bank of America Merchant Services, National Processing Company, and Financial Alliance. He currently resides in Louisville, KY.
John Shipley
Clearent
Sonny is Vice President for business development at National Benefit Programs, who supports the acquiring industry by offering one of the most robust savings programs available for small to medium merchants. Sonny retired from American Express in 2016 after 36 years. He was part of the team that brought the External Sales Agent (ESA) program to market in 1993. Again, Sonny was a leader for the development and launch of the OnePoint merchant acquiring program in 2008, and the newer OptBlue program in 2014. Sonny and American Express has been a founding and primary supporter of the SEAA since its original inception in 2001.