News

Who's who: Tom Stevenson

Tom Stevenson has a knack for being in the right place at the right time, and his resume proves it. Stevenson, the president of vault cash supplier Cash Connect, has been in the financial services industry for nearly 30 years, including stints at such seminal companies as Ohio's Green Machine Network and MAC/Electronic Payment Services.

May 8, 2003

Tom Stevenson has a knack for being in the right place at the right time, and his resume proves it. 

Stevenson, the president of Cash Connect, a division of Delaware's Wilmington Savings Fund Society (WSFS)that supplies vault cash to ATM deployers, has been in the financial services industry for nearly 30 years, including stints at such seminal companies as Ohio's Green Machine Network and MAC/Electronic Payment Services (now Concord EFS).

Junior exec

He was just 14 when he took a part-time job in the mailroom of Ann Arbor Trust Company. He became its lead mainframe computer operator before he got his driver's license, after earning the highest score on a bank-wide programming aptitude test.

Tom Stevenson

It was a somewhat surreal experience, Stevenson said. "I remember going to my locker at school, taking out my tie and blazer, putting them on and then going to work at the bank."

After it was purchased by Society Bank, Stevenson went on to run the bank's data processing operations, among other tasks converting all of the banking applications from a service bureau to an in-house processing system.

When Society purchased Ohio's Green Machine, at the time one of the country's fastest-growing shared networks, Stevenson's expertise made him a natural for a job there.

Initially reluctant to move from his native Michigan to Cleveland, he grew to love the "dynamic environment" at Green Machine.

From 1991 to 1994 Stevenson managed almost all aspects of the business, from customer implementations, to network settlement, to help desk and product management.

On the edge

"It seemed like where all of the action was, stretching out the delivery channels to touch more customers," he said. "It was fun being on the cutting edge."

When Electronic Payment Systems (EPS), owner of the MAC network, purchased Green Machine, Stevenson relocated to Wilmington, Del., where he became MAC's manager of quality assurance.

In that role, he was able to truly test his technology chops, analyzing data from the network's financial institution customers and switches in an effort to isolate potential problems.

"We dug into all of the information flowing through this massive organization and harnessed it to improve our performance," Stevenson said. "The more facts and information you can get your fingertips on, the better you can control overall quality."

After two years at MAC, an offer came from WSFS in 1996. Stevenson became the bank's executive vice president and chief information officer after deciding it would be "fun to get back on the banking side of the desk."

Although 172-year-old WSFS is one of the country's oldest surviving financial institutions, Stevenson said it has a strong reputation for technology. It introduced the country's first debit card in 1972, for instance.

Recognizing the ATM opportunity

The job also provided an opportunity to get into ATM deployment, an idea Stevenson had been toying with since he helped certify the first Triton ATM with a dial-up modem for the MAC network.

With the reduced costs associated with a retail ATM, he said, "The business case for deployment was turned completely upside down."

The move was spurred by the decision of a fellow Delaware financial institution to began surcharging at its ATMs and withdraw from a shared network that offered reciprocal surcharge-free access to its members' customers.

In just one year, Stevenson helped take WSFS from 14 ATMs, all located at branches, to 75 machines. It now has the largest network in Delaware, with 170 machines -- and an additional 30 in surrounding states.

He lined up such key accounts as Happy Harry's Discount Drugs, a popular statewide chain. His experience with Happy Harry's -- which, like many chain retailers was not interested in loading its own cash into ATMs -- made Stevenson realize the potential for supplying vault cash.

Filling the cash void

The hunch was affirmed when he began having discussions with ISOs who told him that they had to walk away from deployment deals where vault cash was involved because they simply couldn't afford them.

WSFS began supplying cash to other deployers in 1997. Shortly afterward, Stevenson helped develop a software system that could identify and track potential losses in the vault cash supply chain.

"Cash has this funny way of finding ways to disappear," Stevenson explained, "so right from square one, we had to find a way to track it."

Stevenson knew he was on to something when a major software company made an offer to buy WSFS' proprietary tracking system in the late '90s.

Thus, Cash Connect was born in early 2000.

Profitable in its first year, it has achieved 100 percent annual growth since then. It supplies up to $100 million a year to some 5,000 ATMs -- including some managed by Money Machine, an Ohio ISO headed by Tom Poti.

Poti, who became friends with Stevenson while working with him at both Green Machine and EPS/MAC, said he has long admired Stevenson's willingness to go the extra mile for both clients and colleagues.

"In this business it's not all about money, it's about your comfort level," Poti said. "I'm not worried about paying a few pennies more. I'm worried about my $100,000 going into the bank when it should."

John Clatworthy, Cash Connect's vice president of sales and marketing, said its 26 employees have earned the nickname "Cash Connect cult," largely because of Stevenson's strong team-building skills.

For instance, associates receive $100 for presenting a report on a book of their choice to their colleagues. "It gets people comfortable communicating with the team, and it helps us realize there's a whole world out there that's not just about ATMs," Clatworthy said of the popular lunchtime program.

Stevenson has convinced half of his Cash Connect team to join him in a program called Creative Mentoring that places volunteer mentors in 80 schools throughout Delaware. Stevenson has mentored the same child for six years.

Stevenson is "passionate" about mentoring, as well as other non-work interests such as genealogical research, Clatworthy said. "When he finds something he feels strongly about, he really pours himself into it."

Included In This Story

---

Cash Connect

Cash Connect is the nation's premier and longest standing vault cash and logistics provider to the ATM industry and now allows you to generate growing new revenue streams with Smart Safes, Recyclers and Kiosks.

Request Info

Learn More

Triton Systems

Triton FI based products • NO Windows 10™ Upgrade • Secured locked down system that is virus/malware resistant • Flexible configurations - Drive-up and Walk-up • Triton's high security standards • NFC, anti-skim card reader, IP camera and level 1 vaults are all options • Triton Connect monitoring • Lower cost

Request Info

Learn More