Meet our People

Thomas P. Anderson, Jr., is the Chairman & CEO of Digital Check Corp. He is the son of the company founder, Thomas P. Anderson Sr., who started Digital Check as the Microseal Corporation in 1959. Tom, Jr., was President from 1986 to 2018.

Mr. Anderson attended Washington & Jefferson College and graduated from Miami University in 1971. Upon graduation, Mr. Anderson served as a Lieutenant / Damage Control Officer in the US Navy – USNR aboard the USS Denebola – AF 56 in support of the US Navy Atlantic Fleet from 1971-1973.

After serving in the US Navy, Anderson began his career with Microseal Corporation, a global provider of microfilm supplies. He became President and CEO in 1986, and in 1989 acquired California-based Data Conversions, Inc. – a high-speed film and document equipment scanning company, which today remains the primary production facility for Digital Check.

In 1994, Mr. Anderson successfully managed the sale of the company’s microfilm assets to Bell & Howell. This sale pivoted the company strategic direction to the emerging check and document scanning markets, and led to the development of the world’s first remote check scanner. Over the next 20 years under Mr. Anderson’s direction, Digital Check acquired various entities in the digital imaging and software space, including ST Imaging, Enternet, nextScan – and, in 2016, the Smart Source brand of scanners from the private-equity holders of Burroughs, Inc.

Mr. Anderson has been married to his wife, Pam, since 1987. They have two sons, Matt and Fitz, both of whom are employed and owners in Digital Check Corp. Pam and Tom treasure the love of their 4 grandchildren, Wells, Augusta, Dylan and Drake and their daughters-in-law, Nicole and Kelly.

Mr. Anderson played college basketball; is an Eagle Scout and was inducted into the Order of the Arrow; is an author and filmmaker / documentarian; and is the founder of The GameChangers Foundation, which provides college scholarships in Chicago for graduating high school seniors.

He is a Director of the Charles H. Cecil Studios in Florence, Italy, an atelier of fine art in the Naturalistic Tradition, and serves as an advisor to Dan McNerney’s Presbyterian Frontier Fellowship Mission throughout the United States and the Middle East.

Jeff Hempker joined Digital Check in 2004 and has over 20 years of sales and marketing experience of check imaging solutions in the financial industry. Previously, he was National Sales Manager at Digital Check.

As President, Mr. Hempker is directly responsible for managing day-to-day operations at Digital Check and brings a tremendous amount of experience working directly with many of the leading software solution providers and Financial Institutions on check scanning and related initiatives. He has also been actively involved in many of the industry organizations such as AFT, BAI, NACHA, and ECCHO.

Before joining Digital Check, Mr. Hempker began his professional career at Dayton, Ohio based Standard Register Company, serving in a variety of marketing and sales capacities for their hardware and software technology solutions division.

Mr. Hempker holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Ohio University and an MBA from the University of Georgia.

Lynne Tagge came to Digital Check with almost 20 years of accounting and finance experience. At Digital Check, she is responsible for accounting, financial planning and analysis, and human resources.

Ms. Tagge began her career at Ernst & Young as an auditor focusing on manufacturing clients. Lynne spent the next portion of her career in various finance functions at companies such as Tribune Company and Kaplan Higher Education. Having an entrepreneurial spirit, she then decided to focus her career on helping drive innovation and growth at smaller organization. Her key qualifications include financial planning and analysis, leading and building teams, integrating acquisitions, process improvements, internal controls and financial accounting.

Ms. Tagge graduated from Butler University with a degree in Accounting. She also received her Master of Business Administration from Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Ms. Tagge is also a Certified Public Accountant.

Paul Slager is the Chief Information Officer for Digital Check, responsible for all corporate technology. He comes to Digital Check with over a decade of IT leadership experience in banking, healthcare, engineering, and insurance related companies.

As CIO, Mr. Slager works to combine people’s talents, business strategy, and technology into a total business solution.

Mr. Slager previously served as Vice President of Technology with Envista Forensics, a COR Partners company. As the head of technology for over a decade, he participated in global expansion into 8 new countries and assisted with half a dozen M&A’s. Mr. Slager oversaw a 1300% growth of the technology practice and is passionate about building teams and creating future leaders. His leadership has generated greater operational efficiencies, customer service enhancements, and a confident security posture with almost zero turnover.

Early in his career, Mr. Slager held a variety of technical level IT positions from support, to infrastructure, to business architecture, to security, to development. These roles have allowed him to better understand the challenges and opportunities that exist in IT.

Mr. Slager holds a BS in Computer Engineering Technology, from Purdue University. In addition to being a project management professional, he holds a variety of technology certifications. He is actively involved in mission work, his community, and church.

Merrick Hatcher joined the Board of Directors of Digital Check in 2017 and became our EVP of Corporate Development and General Counsel in 2018. At Digital Check, he is responsible for overseeing our legal matters and leading various corporate development and strategic initiatives.

Before joining Digital Check, Mr. Hatcher was a Partner at the international law firm of K&L Gates LLP (previously Bell, Boyd & Lloyd), where for over 20 years, he represented a broad range of corporate clients in various corporate, transactional, and securities law matters, including representing strategic buyers and private equity funds in connection with mergers and acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, recapitalizations, turnarounds, and exits; reviewing private equity, venture capital, and hedge fund investment documents on behalf of limited partners; advising public and private companies on corporate, commercial, strategic, and governance matters; advising early-stage and growth companies in connection with venture funding, debt financing, add-on acquisitions, transactions with stockholders, and stock incentive arrangements; advising entrepreneurs, start-ups, and angel investors in connection with various capital investments; and representing public companies in connection with securities offerings and compliance, including IPOs.

Mr. Hatcher earned his bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Michigan, his Juris Doctorate from the University of Michigan Law School, and his MBA from the University of Michigan Business School.

John Gudenburr joined Digital Check in 2016 and has over 35 years of product development experience. Prior to joining Digital Check, Mr. Gudenburr held the position of Senior Product Manager and was responsible for the SmartSource line of products at Burroughs Inc.

Mr. Gudenburr joined Unisys early in his engineering career and was a key contributor to the development of their check imaging solutions for over twenty years. He has been granted more than 20 check payment technology patents.

As Vice President of Engineering, Mr. Gudenburr oversees the research and development of new products or product enhancements performed by a multi-discipline, multi-location engineering team including Electrical, Mechanical, and Software Engineers. In addition, he also oversees product Quality Assurance and development partner support activities.

Mr. Gudenburr holds a Bachelor of Science degree majoring in both Electrical and Computer Engineering as well as a Master of Science degree in Computer Science and Engineering from Oakland University.

In his current role, Fitz Anderson coordinates the firm’s sourcing, evaluation, and investment in new growth opportunities. He also helps direct branding and communication efforts, both internally and externally.

Prior to joining Digital Check, Mr. Anderson managed the land acquisition and site design work for a large, private multi-family real estate developer.

Mr. Anderson holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and an MBA from the University of Notre Dame.

Jose Cardenas joined Digital Check in 2011 after a short engagement as a consultant, successfully improving process efficiency in the areas of customer service, help desk incident reporting, and information technology. Mr. Cardenas brings over 15 years of experience in a wide array of technology-related applications and business management experience.

Mr. Cardenas took on the VP of Information Technology role in 2019, focusing on strategic initiatives that would support company security and growth. Prior to that, he was responsible for managing the company’s manufacturing quality and technical services groups, as well the company’s overall information technology infrastructure. He is based out of Digital Check’s Rancho Cucamonga, CA, facility.

Before joining Digital Check, Mr. Cardenas was founder of J&J Technology Consulting, Inc. and MergeWare, Inc., where he served as CEO, developing paperless workflow and automation solutions for the insurance industry.

Mr. Cardenas’ prior roles also include assistant vice president of innovation strategy & information systems at The Merit Companies, a provider of property management services, and supervisor of data system integration & validation, as well as manager of test engineering for Fujitsu Business Communications Systems. Mr. Cardenas received his Bachelor’s Degree of Science in Electronic Engineering Technology from DeVry Institute of Technology in Pomona, CA.

Fred Lewter joined Digital Check in 2005, with over 30 years of experience providing hardware, software, and service solutions in the government, healthcare and banking industry. Mr. Lewter came to the Digital Check team after 11 years selling and supporting electronic document workflow solutions with Standard Register where he specialized in developing long term relationships by providing custom solutions to his customers and partners.

As VP of Client Support, Mr. Lewter is responsible for managing the Client Support Team, which includes the API support team, sales support specialists, and the technical support helpdesk. These three groups of dedicated technical resources work with our partners, resellers and end users to ensure an industry-leading experience with our solutions. In addition to daily operational support, the Client Support team is also responsible for operator/helpdesk training sessions on all products, new product testing, project scoping, API integration support, and product/solution demonstrations.

Mr. Lewter has a Bachelor of Science degree in International Economics from Florida State University, and is active in several leadership and financial industry organizations. He is passionate about developing and empowering effective leaders, and spends much of his time mentoring our next generation of youths. Fred is very active with church missions, and enjoys the beach life in Gulf Breeze, Florida, with his wife and three children.

Matthew Anderson joined Digital Check in 2022 as its Assistant General Counsel and Vice President – Acquisitions.  In these roles, Mr. Anderson is responsible for various legal and corporate development matters for the company.

Prior to joining Digital Check, Mr. Anderson was an attorney at K&L Gates LLP, an international law firm, where he represented public and private companies across industries on a broad range of corporate legal matters, including complex corporate transactions, securities, corporate governance, commercial contracts, and general corporate law.  During his time at K&L Gates, Mr. Anderson also maintained various secondary practice areas.

Mr. Anderson earned his Bachelor of Arts in Business and Political Science from Calvin University (previously Calvin College) and his Juris Doctorate, cum laude, from the University of Michigan Law School.  Between college and law school, Mr. Anderson was a Peace Corps volunteer in Nicaragua.

Nathan St. John heads the Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Service, Customer Service and Quality teams at Digital Check Corp’s California operation. Mr. St. John joined Digital Check in 2020 bringing more than 15 years of experience in manufacturing engineering, global supply chain, production, design engineering, and business.

As Vice President, California Operations, Mr. St. John is directly responsible for managing day to day operations at Digital Check.  This covers the entire order fulfillment process; from customer order entry, through procurement, manufacturing, quality assurance, inventory control and shipping.

Prior to joining Digital Check, Mr. St. John began his professional career at SpectraSensors inc. (now Endress+Hauser Optical Analysis) in Rancho Cucamonga, California. He started as a Manufacturing Engineering Intern and finished his time as Operations Manager with several roles in between in both engineering and operations. He is co-inventor on two design patents. Mr. St. John holds a Bachelor of Science, Manufacturing Engineering, suma cum laude from Oregon State University and Master of Business Administration from UCLA Anderson School of Management.

Mike Donovan joined the organization in 2006 and served as Regional Sales Manager prior to moving into his role as Director of Channel Sales in 2011, Vice President of Sales, North America in 2016, and Vice President, Global Sales in 2023. Donovan brings over 30 years of sales and marketing experience in the technology sector with a specific focus on channel management.

As Vice President of Global Sales, Mike is responsible for the Digital Check sales team who manage both domestic and international relationships with our solution providers and fulfillment partners serving over 110 countries, projecting long-term demand, regional business development initiatives, and creating channel programs and promotions in support our partners efforts.

Mike began his career at IBM serving in a number of sales and marketing roles in support of the Personal Systems Group division. Prior to joining Digital Check he was managing the southeastern channel partner network for InFocus. Mike earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

He has also participated in the Institute for Partner Education and Management (Channel Masters) Program and is active in a variety of industry organizations.

Racheal Guse joined Digital Check from Burroughs, Inc. in 2016 and possesses more than 14 years’ experience in global sales and customer service experience with banking systems and hardware. Prior to her management of our sales team, she oversaw Digital Check’s global customer service and logistics teams in California, Illinois, and Michigan.

As Director of Global Sales, Ms. Guse is responsible for forecasting global demand, developing channel strategy, and overseeing customer experience and sales initiatives.

Ms. Guse received her Master of Business Administration from Colorado State University’s College of Business. She resides in Phoenix, Arizona, and is fluent in Spanish.

Jim Ferguson is National Sales Manager and has responsibility for developing relationships with the top 50 Financial Institutions in the United States.

Mr. Ferguson joined Digital Check after 10 years at Alogent Corporation selling image capture software solutions for all channels, including Teller Capture, Back Counter Capture, Remote Deposit Capture and Mobile Capture. Mr. Ferguson is an accomplished Sales Professional with a broad set of relationships within the Financial Services vertical that included consulting and strategic sales for Digital Insight, Computer Associates (CA) and Harland Financial Solutions.

Mr. Ferguson earned a Bachelor of Business Administration from the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia. He resides in Atlanta with his wife, Allison and their three boys.

Eric Gearding is the Business Development Manager for Digital Check, focusing on regional and community banks, and credit union partners throughout North America. In addition to these partners, he is continually speaking with new verticals — Healthcare, Insurance, Government and Municipalities — to partner and add value to these new relationships.

Mr. Gearding is a graduate of Centre College and received his MBA from Northern Kentucky University. He currently resides in Wilder, Kentucky, with his wife (Shari) and their 6 children, where he enjoys all sports and follows his beloved Kentucky Wildcats!

Takami Johnson is Digital Check’s North American Channel Sales Manager. She oversees channel partnerships with several key partners.

Ms. Johnson joined Digital Check from FIS, and possesses more than 17 years’ experience with banking systems and hardware.

Ms. Johnson resides in Oklahoma City with her son Joshua. She enjoys running half marathons in her free time.

David Nelms is Regional Sales Manager for Digital Check’s Fulfillment Channel Partners. He oversees direct sales and channel partnerships in the United States and Canada. David joined Digital Check from one of our channel partners, and possesses more than 15 years’ experience with banking systems and hardware.

David resides in Georgia with his wife, Shelli, their daughter Sarah, and their son Will. He enjoys spending time with his family, golfing, and watching his son play baseball.

Jeff Wood works with software providers in North America to embrace and promote Digital Check products and services that complement and support their software at clients’ branches.

Mr. Wood lives in the Atlanta area. He volunteers time in his community as a liaison between Public Safety and the citizens/businesses of the area.

Ninad Chavan is Regional Director for the APAC region. He is responsible for company’s sales and operations in this area. He oversees the channel management and drives continued expansion of business revenues and product diversification within this region.

Mr. Chavan joined Digital Check from Experian, and possesses more than 14 years of varied experience that spans banking, credit information bureau and financial technology. He has held key positions in business development, strategy and product development for companies like Barclays Bank, TransUnion and Experian.

Mr. Chavan holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Information Technology and an MBA in Marketing, both from the Mumbai University. He resides in Mumbai, India.

Chris Ellinas joined Digital Check in 2016 as the Regional Sales Director for Europe, Middle East, and Africa. His role is to manage the partner network, solution provider relationships, as well as engaging directly with financial institutions within this diverse and emerging market. He brings more than 20 years of experience in payment solutions.

Before joining Digital Check, Mr. Ellinas held various positions in professional services, sales, and sales management at NCR. His most recent position was that of Region Solution Sales Director, Payment Solutions for Middle East and Africa.

During his 18 years with NCR he was involved with the implementation and sales of nationwide check truncation, ACH, and check processing systems with the major banks in Middle East and Africa. He has been involved many times in consulting engagements with the region’s Central Banks in helping countries evolve from traditional clearing to image exchange. Mr. Ellinas brings extensive experience of the industry as well as the EMEA market, and part of his role is to identify and qualify the right partners and solution providers for Digital Check in order to solidify its global leadership in image processing technologies.

Mr. Ellinas holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Central Connecticut State University, and an MBA from the Frank G. Zarb School of Business, Hofstra University, New York. He currently resides in Nicosia, Cyprus.

Oscar Milan oversees Digital Check’s presence in all of Latin America, including Central America, South America, and the Caribbean.

Mr. Milan is the founder of Mexican office products distributor AM&M S.A. de C.V., and more than 25 years’ experience. He began working exclusively for Digital Check in 2000, and has now been with the company for 20 years. He has been Regional Sales Manager for Latin America since 2007.

Based in Mexico City, Mr. Milan manages an extensive partner and distributor network across two continents, and possesses an unparalleled working knowledge of local and national banking environments throughout the region.

Silvia Bello, brings a wealth of experience to her role as Account Manager for Latin American market. A proud Mexican with a degree in Communication Sciences, Silvia kickstarted her professional journey in Advertising agencies, laying the foundation for a robust career spanning 17 years.

Throughout her impressive tenure, Silvia has excelled in the Commercial and Business Development, particularly within the financial and digital sectors. Her strategic prowess, coupled with a keen understanding of client needs, has consistently fueled success. Residing in Mexico City, Silvia is poised to deliver tailored solutions and drive mutual success for Digital Check’s Latin American partners and clients.

Tom Mason came to Digital Check with over a decade of CFO experience with technology companies, and served as the company’s Chief Financial Officer through 2019. As Executive Vice President and Special Advisor, he is actively involved in Digital Check’s corporate strategy and planning, as well as providing financial and strategic counsel.

While at Digital Check, he has been involved in all aspects of the company’s business, and has led implementation of a broad range of systems and controls to help this entrepreneurial company grow. He has been integrally involved in supporting the company’s leadership in remote deposit and teller automation.

Mr. Mason began his career with KPMG/Peat Marwick as a CPA and subsequently held various finance positions with Baxter/American Hospital Supply Corporation, and then held various finance, general management and operating positions with Bell & Howell Company, a provider of software and hardware solutions for the document imaging industry.

Mr. Mason’s other chief financial officer experiences included a variety of publicly traded and privately held companies including, MSO Holdings, Inc, a start-up healthcare company focused on surgical treatments for obesity; Centiv, Inc. (NASDAQ: CNTV), a marketing services company providing web-enabled point-of-purchase merchandising solutions for consumer package goods manufacturers and major retailers, where he was also a Board Member; Telular Corporation (NASDAQ: WRLS), a wireless technology marketer and manufacturer of telecommunication and home security equipment; and Segerdahl Corporation, a privately held commercial printer.

He graduated with a Bronze Tablet from the University of Illinois and received his Bachelor of Science degree in accounting and is a Certified Public Accountant.

Mr. Mason lives in the Chicago suburbs, and has two sons.

Glenn Embury heads the Manufacturing, Service, and Quality teams at Digital Check’s California operation. Mr. Embury joined Digital Check in 2002 and has over 30 years of global supply chain, product development, manufacturing, and technical business experience. Previously, he held positions as General Manager and VP of Operations at Digital Check’s California facility.

As Executive Vice President, Mr. Embury is directly responsible for managing day to day operations at Digital Check utilizing his vast experience in engineering (electrical, mechanical, and software), manufacturing (cost effective manufacturing providing the ability to manufacture in USA while competing with off-shore manufacturers), global procurement and supply chain management, and quality/technical service.

Prior to joining Digital Check, Mr. Embury began his professional career at Fujitsu BCS in Anaheim, California, and has held both Engineering and Manufacturing positions such as; several software/hardware engineer positions, Test Engineering Manager, Manufacturing Engineering Director, Systems Test Director, and finally as Vice President of Engineering (software, electrical, and mechanical) over his 20 years with Fujitsu.