Meet Our Team

Ted has been with the company since 1989 and has a B.S. degree in Biology and Information Systems from Middle Tennessee State University. He assumed the president and CEO role in 1997, is now CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors and is on the Board of Directors for the Baptist Foundation of New England. In his spare time, Ted works to support his church as a trustee, volunteers on the local fire department and enjoys gardening, jigsaw puzzles and spending time with family.

Eric joined Thrive Payments in 2019 and assumed the role of the President in 2020. Eric has over 25 years of commercial lending experience serving small businesses and franchise systems across the US, having most recently served at the COO for CIT Bank. Eric enjoys spending time with his family, fishing and boating on Lake Winnipesaukee, is a car fanatic, and loves photography.

Andrea Leavitt joined Thrive Payments in 2019. Ms. Leavitt is a Magna Cum Laude graduate of Merrimack College with a B.A. in Psychology and Criminology. She furthered her academic career at Massachusetts School of Law where she earned her Juris Doctor degree and became a member of the Massachusetts Bar the same year. Beyond her work at Thrive Payments, Andrea enjoys playing tennis and spending quality time with her family and friends.

Mary has been employed at Thrive Payments for over 15 years and has a B.A. in Psychology from the University of New Hampshire, as well as SPHR and SHRM-CP certifications. Mary enjoys reading and raising chickens in her spare time.

Joanne has been with Thrive Payments in a variety of roles for the past 4.5 years. An avid dog lover, she also enjoys traveling, fishing and spending time with family.

With over 14 years of payments experience, Lisa can open the line of communication between clients, vendors and businesses to get projects to completion. Lisa has experience in project management, strategic implementation,  and team skill development, and most recently  enjoyed being part of the 2020 Global Visa Challenge. Lisa is an animal lover, and also enjoys photography, baking, home décor, and spending time with her husband and two boys!

Merchant specialist who is dedicated to providing service with a smile. It always feels good to solve a merchant’s problem! I am an avid sports fan who likes to bartend on the side!

I love the 50’s and 60’ music. Family is very important to me and also my cat Rocky. I enjoy the detective  stories on PBS like Endeavour, Sherlock, Grantchester, and Father Brown Mysteries.

Over the past decade, Lydia has acquired a wealth of knowledge in the payments industry. Lydia has led product development initiatives from conceptualization to launch, developed training programs for large and varied sales teams, and been a thought leader for call handling innovation in support centers. Lydia is well positioned to bring innovation and stability to our product portfolio while taking us to the next level. Outside of work, Lydia enjoys spending time with her family, reading, and writing.

Shannon has worked at Thrive Payments in the Underwriting and Risk department for over 6 years.  In that time, she has gained a great deal of knowledge in the Payments industry.  As the Merchant Underwriting Risk Analyst, Shannon manages our merchant processing applications and provides ongoing risk management for our merchant portfolio.  In her spare time, Shannon enjoys fitness, fashion, and spending time with her two young children.

Pete has worked in the Business Analytics fields for 12+ years in many different roles.  He and his wife have twin daughters that keep them busy outside of work.  He is also a passionate Boston sports fan and enjoys biking and running in his free time.

Greg is located in Kansas City and has spent 20+ working in financial services. He worked at two different banks in the Kansas City area before changing speeds and working for the past 11 years in the prepaid field. Greg has a long background in sales and marketing and is excited to be a new team member of the Thrive family. Greg is a graduate of Kansas State University, has three children aged 26, 19 and 17 and enjoys music, movies and travelling abroad.

Scott Hansen, based in Louisville, Kentucky, comes to Thrive Payments from EncoreFX where he was a senior sales executive within the international payments arena. Scott has more than 20 years experience working within the payments field at such companies as Fiserv and American Express where he brought top level systems and service to his clients nationwide. Scott joins Thrive Payments as a Strategic Partnership Executive working with financial institutions throughout the United States.

Tom is located in Columbus, Ohio and began his merchant services career as a sales representative for First Data Merchant Services on the Huntington Bank partnership. He has 14 years of merchant services experience as a sales manager with First Data (now Fiserv) and Vantiv (now FIS) and 22 total years experience as a sales manager. He is married to wife Jane with two daughters and enjoys travelling as well as gardening and cooking.

Michelle is located in Rhode Island where she works directly with one of Thrive Payment’s bank partners.  The partnership has allowed her to build deep relationships with business owners in the community while finding processing solutions that allow them to grow their businesses.  During her downtime, she enjoys hiking with her dog, cooking, gardening and spending time with her family.

Nikki has 16 years of community banking experience. She believes that trust and loyalty are the foundational cornerstones of everything she does, both personally and professionally. She invests in relationships which leads to partnerships. Nikki resides in Christiansburg, VA with her husband and two adult children. Outside of work, she enjoys camping, kayaking, and Virginia Tech football.

Kris is located in Massachusetts and is an account executive serving local businesses. She created the website www.justeatlocal.us to help local restaurants during COVID and beyond. Kris enjoys spending time with her family, decorating/ home décor, Lake Winnipesaukee and loves animals – especially her family dogs Daisy and Winni.