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:

• Rocco Fabiano, President
• 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
• Rolando De Gracia, Vice President, Sales
• Chip Fishburne, Vice President, Financial and Merchant Services
• Ben Ackerman, Vice President, Business Development

Rocco Fabiano
President
Firethorn Holdings LLC

As president of Firethorn Holdings, LLC, Mr. Fabiano provides strategic direction for the company's core mobile banking and mobile commerce portfolios and is responsible for leading Firethorn's expansion into new markets. With more than 25 years of experience in the financial services industry, Mr. Fabiano brings to Firethorn a rare combination of expertise in both large enterprise and entrepreneurial environments.

Mr. Fabiano spent much of his career at Household International (now HSBC North America). Five of these years were spent as a Group Executive where he oversaw four of the company’s subsidiaries accounting for $35 billion in assets and $650 million per annum in after-tax profits. Most recently, Mr. Fabiano served as a senior advisor to Belvedere Capital and CompuCredit, as well as a consultant to KKR Financial. Among his other experiences, Mr. Fabiano has overseen a $17 billion private label credit card business, ran a $12 billion auto finance operation, served as head of a retail bank, was the chief operating officer of a mortgage company and ran a small credit card rewards venture. He is currently on the board of directors of Red Mountain Ventures, Vitality Finance, Family First Rewards and DigiTells Software.

As an entrepreneur, Mr. Fabiano has founded a number of businesses, taking two public and selling two others. He has also been an advisor on financial services to many of the nation’s largest private equity firms, and was honored as the 1997 Ernst & Young/NASDAQ Entrepreneur of the Year.

Mr. Fabiano holds a Master of Business Administration from Cornell University as well as a Master of Science in Protein Chemistry and Bachelor of Science from Colorado State University.

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. Mr. Hodges brings to his role nearly 20 years of finance experience. Prior to Firethorn, Mr. Hodges served as CFO and Corporate Secretary for PRESolutions (now InComm), a leading provider of prepaid products.

Mr. Hodges also served as CFO and Corporate Secretary of nFront, Inc., a leading provider of full-service Internet banking solutions for financial institutions. Previously, Mr. 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.  Mr. 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, Mr. 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. Mr. 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.

Mr. 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, Mr. 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, Mr. 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, Mr. 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, Mr. Vigil oversees the strategic sales efforts across the entire value chain including Financial Institutions, Carriers and Merchants.

Since joining Qualcomm in 1993, Mr. 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.  Mr. 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.

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

Rolando De Gracia
Vice President, Sales

Rolando De Gracia joined Firethorn as Vice President of Sales in 2010 and is responsible for all aspects of Firethorn's Mobile Banking and Retail Sales efforts. Mr. De Gracia brings more than 15 years of Financial Services experience during which time he has closed more than $1 billion in distribution deals and has a proven record of success in entering new markets and regions.

Most recently, Mr. De Gracia served as Senior Vice President of Business Development, Strategy and Sales, within GE Capital's Consumer Finance business. In this role, he led mergers and acquisitions, co-brand partnership sales as well as corporate strategy.

Prior to GE, Mr. De Gracia held positions with HSBC; the Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation; Booz, Allen & Hamilton, Inc.; and Bank America Securities. At GE and HSBC, Rolando built credit card distribution relationships with top merchants such as Wal-Mart, eBay, Saks, Dillard's, Menards, Hudson Bay, Chevron and Famsa. He has also developed relationships with other merchants including Target, Sears, The Home Depot, the Limited, Gap and Amazon.

Mr. De Gracia holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Maryland and a Masters of Business Administration from Wharton Business School, where he specialized in finance and strategic management. He also has a strong focus on leadership and development having being involved in various mentorship programs and leadership councils.

Chip Fishburne
Vice President
Financial and Merchant Services

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

Mr. 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, Mr. 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.  Mr. Fishburne also has over 20 years of experience in the payment and transaction processing industries. 

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

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.  Mr. 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, Mr. 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.