Ben Britt – Route 66 Ventures
Ben is Vice President at Route 66 Ventures, and focuses on investments in private equity, venture capital, and project finance. Prior to joining Route 66, Ben was a management consultant at McKinsey & Company, where he advised leading organizations around the globe on lean operations, strategy, and product design. Previously, Ben was a co-founder and executive of an innovative web services start-up called WiseChoice, an online college counseling resource that helped high school students and their families navigate and find “best fit” colleges.
He also served in various senior roles at Goal Financial, a major student loan originator, and was responsible for capital markets transactions, securitizations, and financial analysis. Ben began his career as a submarine officer and nuclear engineer in the U.S. Navy. He holds an MBA from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an M.S. from the University of Maryland – College Park, and a B.S. in Economics from the U.S. Naval Academy, where he graduated with honors.
William Fisher – Treetop Ventures
William (Fish) Fisher is the founding partner of Treetop Ventures LLC, a company that provides comprehensive, integrated financial and legal support for small and start-up businesses. He is an experienced executive, entrepreneur, investor and public board member. He has served on the board of directors of five public companies (Hypercom, West Teleservices, Transaction Systems, TriZetto and Bank of America merchant processing). Fish was president of the Government Services division at First Data Resources when he left in 1987 after a seven-year tenure to join ACI. At ACI he led a management buyout of the company from Tandem Computers, founding Transaction Systems Architects in 1993. He served as Chairman and CEO of that company until 2001. Since working at ACI, Fish has been an angel investor in a number of private companies, serving on the board of many of these. He is co-founder of a number of companies in addition to Treetop and Transaction Systems including Sojern, Prism Technologies and Prairie Cloudware. He has a Bachelor of Science in Management from Indiana University and a MBA from the University of Nebraska.
Alex Hart – Official Payments
Alex Hart brings more than 20 years of experience in financial services to the board and has held numerous senior positions at companies such as NationsBank, CheckFree and Microsoft. Alex was president and CEO of Corillian, an early pioneer in the Internet banking market, which experienced a 2,700 percent increase in equity value during his five-year tenure. His most recent roles include president and CEO of Official Payments, a provider of electronic payment options to the United States government and other organizations, and president of Fuelman, a division of Fleetcor Technologies, a global provider of fuel cards and workforce payment products to businesses. As a consultant for ACI Worldwide, he assisted with corporate development and product strategy.
Matthew Lawlor – Lawton House Capital
Matthew (Matt) Lawlor is general partner of Lawton House Capital, a venture development and investment holding firm focused on financial services and payment technologies. He founded Online Resources, where he served as Chairman and CEO for 20 years until 2009. With 15 million consumer end-users, Online Resources was one of the nation’s largest and most innovative outsourcers of online financial and payment services. Matt began his career in 1970 with RCA, serving as project engineer for NASA’s Earth Resources Technology Satellite. After completing graduate school, he joined Chemical Bank (now JP Morgan Chase). There he was staff coordinator for the bank’s Asset and Liability Management Committee, managed a consumer-banking group, and headed Chemical’s international equity investment company. In 1980, Lawlor served as a Presidential Exchange Executive in the White House. He later formed a venture development firm, providing seed capital to RSA (formerly Security Dynamics) and other early-stage technology companies. Matt holds a BS in mechanical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and a MBA from Harvard. He is active in public affairs and charitable work.