Our Leadership Team
Michael Kelly
Executive Director
Michael leads TransFund by casting a strong vision. With more than 20 years in the payment and financial services industry, Michael is building momentum and shaping the future by focusing on TransFund’s trusted, authentic relationships; high-touch, consultative solutions; and fair and transparent value for customers. His strengths in building cohesive work environments, collaborative relationships, and creative solutions are regularly acknowledged by senior teams, customers, and colleagues. Prior to joining TransFund, Michael served in leadership roles of increasing responsibilities with Discover, Mastercard, and American Express. He’s known throughout the industry for advocating on behalf of TransFund customers with Visa, Mastercard, and multiple PIN networks. Michael currently sits on the board of Youth Services of Tulsa and has served as Tri-Chair for the Tulsa Area United Way Annual Fund Campaign.
David Grossardt
Senior Vice President, Director, Revenue Growth & Strategic Development
David started his career in the U.S. Navy where he worked in South America conducting Drug Enforcement Operations. With a Master of Business Administration degree and more than 25 years of Operations, Relationship Management, Sales and Marketing experience within the Debit and Credit Card Industry, he is considered an expert in this field and often speaks at industry trade association meetings. David has a very progressive approach which has allowed him to assist community financial institutions with growth oriented EFT marketing solutions geared toward attracting new customers and increasing non-interest fee income. David assisted in pioneering the “My School Card Program”, which created significant revenue growth for the community financial institutions his team has worked with and also benefited hundreds of schools across the nation.
Ashley Harris
Senior Vice President, Projects, Conversions and ATM Technical Services
Ashley leads projects, conversions and ATM technical services at TransFund and has more than 25 years in the credit card, telecom and EFT processing arena. Prior to her current role as Manager of Projects and Conversions in 2014, Ashley had 10 years of experience as a Senior Project Manager and Senior Relationship Manager at TransFund. During her tenure, Ashley has been closely involved with the constant changes surrounding the EFT industry and gained extensive expertise and knowledge from working closely with the network brands, core processors and financial institutions. Ashley’s familiarity of the industry and customer service experience help her deliver the quality customer service, project management and industry knowledge that set TransFund apart from our competitors in the industry.
Martin G Buckley
Senior Vice President, Manager Merchant Services Sales Support
Marty has spent more than 25 years in the merchant services acquiring space successfully leading and building sales and account management teams. Marty’s passions are sales, leadership, coaching, mentoring and inspiring his teammates to exceed their career, financial and monthly sales goals. Creating a bench strength and a line of succession have always been a hallmark throughout Marty’s career. During a ten-year period, Marty effectively mentored and developed nine employees under his supervision that were promoted to fill critical leadership and national account sales openings within the organization. In addition to spending over 18 years with First Data, Marty previously spent time Wells Fargo Merchant Services, TransFirst and Sage Payment Solutions in various leadership capacities.
Chris Cichy
Senior Vice President, Director of Operations & Strategic Projects
Chris heads TransFund’s operations, learning and development, and global strategic initiatives. With more than 20 years of EFT/ATM and payment processing experience, Chris is recognized as a dynamic and critical leader who absorbs the landscape from the lens of multiple perspectives, thereby delivering strategy and solutions which best fit the needs of the client and company while accelerating delivery, simplifying integration, strengthening performance and enhancing communication. He shared that “excellence is influenced by a few primary elements – capacity to listen, communicate openly and own what’s in front of you – find the balance and you’ll always deliver more than expected.” Chris previously led ATM Services at FIS, engaging with leading 2,000+ small-to-large scale FIs and ISOs on strategy, deployment and operational support across a 100,000+ ATM network. Prior roles of increasing accountability were held at eFunds, Metavante and M&I Data Services.
Stephanie Palmgren
Senior Vice President, Product & Marketing
Stephanie Palmgren is a 35-year veteran of financial institution and EFT marketing. Since joining TransFund in the early 90s, she served the company for ten years as an outside sales consultant and has led the marketing efforts for more than 15 years. She is responsible for the development of many of the network’s popular card programs, as well as marketing efforts that helped TransFund experience strong and consistent growth throughout the years. As manager of the TransFund Marketing team, Stephanie is focused on offering unique, customized solutions designed to grow the portfolios of financial institution clients. Prior to her career at TransFund, she served as marketing director for a number of Oklahoma financial institutions both large and small.
Patrick Arch
Senior Vice President, Manager of Information Service
Patrick has led the TransFund Information Services team for the last 10 years and has more than 27 years of experience in numerous Operations and Information Technology (IT) roles in the banking industry. As Information Services Manager, Patrick’s responsibilities include leading the support of TransFund’s in-house developed Billing, Application and Data Warehouse environments. During his tenure in TransFund, Patrick has built a strong and flexible team and systems that are capable of handling the needs of the ever evolving EFT Industry. Patrick has implemented many notable banking systems during his time in IT including the Wire Room, PegaSystem Adjustments, and DSS Return Items, and he engineered and integrated the Item Processing legacy environment to image based in support of Check 21 which included the upgrade and conversion of four Item Processing Centers in three states. His experience analyzing opportunities and developing solutions as a profitability analyst early in his career embedded cost control and efficiency as core values that still stand strong today.