Billhighway Welcomes Tracy-Ann Palmer and Michelle Lange as CGO and CMO

02/15/2012

Financial Technology Platform adds first two women to its executive team

TROY, Mich., February 13, 2012 – Billhighway, the cloud-based financial solution for organizations, has announced two new hires to their executive team, Tracy-Ann Palmer as Chief Growth Officer and Michelle Lange as Chief Marketing Officer.

Palmer is leading sales and growth opportunity efforts for Billhighway with Lange in charge of all brand building initiatives in pursuit of ongoing rapid growth. Dominating the Greek market has enabled Billhighway to ramp up its sales and marketing teams to continue to grow the company on a national level.

“Michelle and Tracy-Ann bring a strong dynamic to our team,” says Vincent Thomas, CEO of Billhighway. “With exciting new product releases and enhancements on the way, we’re pleased to add Michelle and Tracy-Ann to our team to honor our commitment to help even more nonprofits become financially healthy and do more to advance their missions.”

Michelle is a proven business leader and marketing professional, having successfully grown brands from Michigan-based companies to global entities such as General Motors, Louis Vuitton-Moet Hennessey, Dow Chemical and ConAgra as well as founding SilverTree to help nonprofits. Prior to Billhighway, she was the director of The Walsh Institute, where she focused on accelerating growth in Michigan through education and entrepreneurship resulting in the Blackstone LaunchPad amongst other initiatives.  Michelle has been recognized by Advertising Age and BrandWeek as a top marketer in the U.S.

Prior to joining Billhighway, Tracy-Ann served as a Senior Alliances Manager of Salesforce.com where she was responsible for all channel strategy and management and assisted global Salesforce.com partners to dramatically increase their revenues, by meeting the needs of over 100,000 customers.  Tracy-Ann also held several positions with companies including Nu Metro Entertainment (license holder of all Fox, Warner, Disney productions in South Africa) and ARZIKA, an experiential marketing company awarded Corp! Magazine’s 2010 Best Michigan Small Business which Tracy-Ann founded.

About Billhighway

Billhighway is the foremost cloud-based system designed for nonprofit organizations that combines payment processing, and banking and accounting solutions in one application, allowing for straight-through financial processing. We help nonprofits and member-based associations improve their financial health, increase their operational efficiency, and reduce their risk of fraud – making it possible for them to accomplish more with fewer resources so they can focus on advancing their mission. Over 3,500 nonprofits trust Billhighway to seamlessly manage $5 billion in transactions with award-winning customer service and industry-leading data security.   www.billhighway.com

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Billhighway CEO Joins Conversation on Jobs at White House

02/09/2012

TROY, Michigan (February 9, 2012) – Billhighway CEO Vincent Thomas will participate in a conversation on jobs and the economy to be held at the White House on Friday, February 10, 2012.  Led by the White House Business Council and Business Forward, the conversation will focus on how the Obama Administration and the Detroit business community can work together to create jobs and grow the economy.

“Innovation, customer service, and a focus on financial health and efficiencies have been the linchpins of Billhighway’s success as a company,” said Thomas. “I’m looking forward to sharing the Billhighway story and my thoughts on creative, strategic ways non-financial institutions can improve financial operations for nonprofits and member-based organizations.”

According to the event’s organizers, feedback from sessions with other business groups have had a direct impact on the Administration’s business policies and on the President’s efforts to improve job growth nationally.  Results have included tax cuts for business owners, hiring incentives, and programs that help small businesses make the most of federal resources.

“I’m glad that the Administration is looking for ways to help businesses like Billhighway grow,” said Thomas. “But in many cases, what high growth businesses need most is for government to get out of the way and let us do what we do best.  Extensive regulations and too much oversight can put a damper on growth.”

Thomas will be tweeting throughout the conference, which runs from 2 to 6 p.m. on Friday afternoon. Follow the conversation on Twitter @billhighway. A more comprehensive discussion of the topics discussed at the conference will be posted on the Billhighway Blog at http://blog.billhighway.com/.

About Billhighway

Billhighway is the foremost cloud-based system designed for nonprofit organizations that combines payment processing, and banking and accounting solutions in one application, allowing for straight-through financial processing. We help nonprofits and member-based associations improve their financial health, increase their operational efficiency, and reduce their risk of fraud – making it possible for them to accomplish more with fewer resources so they can focus on advancing their mission. Over 3,500 nonprofits trust Billhighway to seamlessly manage $5 billion in transactions with award-winning customer service and industry-leading data security.  www.billhighway.com

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Billhighway Welcomes John Schelske as Chief Operating Officer

02/06/2012

Financial Technology Platform brings operations expertise to its executive team

Billhighway, the cloud-based financial solution for organizations, has brought on top talent to their executive team, John Schelske, as Chief Operating Officer.

John is responsible for all operational departments including finance, human resources, client relations, and is charged with maintaining Billhighway’s over 96% client retention rate.

“We’re glad to have John as part of our team,” says Vincent Thomas, CEO of Billhighway. “His technical product knowledge and client service expertise is a key component in achieving the goals we’ve set for ourselves over the next 5 years.  We want to help as many nonprofits as possible.”

“I’m excited about being a part of a team that has great people,” says Schelske. “Billhighway has a unique culture that encourages team members to focus on things that are most important to our clients and people.  The growth that we are experiencing makes every day a fun challenge.”

Prior to Billhighway, John led the education division and managed key client relationships for New World Systems. He also served as a partner at Deloitte in their consulting practice providing operations and information technology services to clients, specialized in middle market clients including not-for-profits. John has also served as a board member and treasurer for the Birmingham Athletic Club.

Billhighway is the cloud-based platform that helps nonprofits and associations manage their finances by automating all areas of their financial lifecycle. Headquartered in Troy, Mich., Billhighway is the pioneer in bringing payment processing, online banking and accounting together in one transparent system to improve operational efficiency and financial performance. Since forming in 1999, Billhighway has processed over $5 billion in client transactions, maintains over 96% in client loyalty and has been recognized by numerous organizations, most recently from Ernst and Young as CEO Vince Thomas received “Entrepreneur of the Year” and from Crain’s Detroit for being one of the “Coolest Places to Work”. To learn more about Billhighway, visit www.billhighway.com.

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Vince Thomas interviewed on local radio station, WDET

02/02/2012

CEO of Billhighway, Vince Thomas, was featured this morning in an interview on WDET 101.9 FM. Vince was interviewed along with Challenge Detroit Executive Director Deirdre Greene Groves on Billhighway’s participation in Challenge Detroit. Along with 30 other companies, Billhighway will offer a spot in their company to live, play, work and give back in Detroit and surrounding areas. This initiative is attracting fresh talent to not only come to Detroit, but stay in Detroit. To listen to the interview, click here.

Read more about how Billhighway is participating in Challenge Detroit here.

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Vince Thomas speaks at The Collaborative Group about the purpose of business

01/27/2012

CEO of Billhighway, Vince Thomas was asked to present at The Collaborative Group yesterday, Jan 26, about his story as a young entrepreneur in Detroit and what  he believes the future of business looks like.

Vince focused his presentation on the greater purpose of companies and how they have an impact on their surrounding communities and world.

“What is most important in life? We, as company, think the time and people in our lives. Not necessarily money.”

Billhighway is a financial tool that allows nonprofit organizations across the country to free up resources they would have normally spent on managing finances to redeploy back into their organizations. Since forming in 1999, Billhighway has enabled clients to retain over $125 million to spend on advancing their mission.

“Making millions of dollars is nice, but helping millions of people is better.”

The Collaborative Group is a new and innovative gathering of individuals comprised of a diverse group of entrepreneurial thinkers from throughout southeast Michigan who have the capacity and desire to improve greater Detroit. Challenge Detroit is one of The Collaborative Group’s recent projects, a program attracting 30 young people to live work, play and give in the city of Detroit. To learn more about the Collaborative Group and Challenge Detroit, visit www.collaborativegroup.org or www.challengedetroit.org.

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Vince Thomas featured in Challenge Detroit interview

01/26/2012

 

Billhighway’s CEO, Vince Thomas, was interviewed by Channel 7- WXYZ Detroit as a part of Challenge Detroit, a program that attracts young talent to Detroit to live, work and play in the city for a period of time.

Billhighway will be one of the 30 companies involved with Challenge Detroit that will offer positions to young people moving to Detroit.

Each company will hire a participant for one year.  They will receive a $30,000 salary and a host of other benefits, including a stipend for housing in Detroit.

To learn more about Challenge Detroit, visit www.ChallengeDetroit.org.

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Billhighway helps Metro Detroit family in need

12/06/2011

This year, the Billhighway family adopted a family in need for the holidays. Our team came together to donate clothing, winter boots, grocery store gift certificates, bedding, cleaning supplies, household items and, of course, TOYS!

Billhighway is an organization who feels strongly about supporting our nonprofit clients to make a difference in the world, but also about rolling up our sleeves and making a difference right here in Metro Detroit.

“Being charitable by helping those in our community is important because our community is important,” said David Finn,” Billhighway Client Care Associate.  “Times are hard right now for some, and having the ability to help people in a time of need is not only the right thing to do, but it is also very rewarding. You would be hard pressed to find someone who doesn’t find joy out of being able to put a smile on someone’s face, especially around the holidays.”

Here are some highlights:

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Are you volunteering for the holidays? What are you doing to brighten someone’s day within your community? We’d love to hear your stories!

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Billhighway competes alongside LinkedIn, Groupon in Entrepreneur of the Year Award Competition

12/02/2011

CEO Vince Thomas shares his thoughts on attending the Ernst and Young national award competition

On November 8-14, 2011, Billhighway’s CEO Vince Thomas attended the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year National Award Competition in Palm Springs, California along with over 2,300 of the world’s top CEOs, entrepreneurs and business leaders.

Describe your overall experience. Was it different than what you had expected?

My overall experience at the event was incredible. When I first got there, I didn’t know what to expect. It was amazing just to see the caliber of people and brands in attendance, but to see how they were all mingling together was very cool. There were no boundaries between leaders of companies by industries or size of their businesses. We were all there to learn from each other. The speakers far exceeded my expectations. There were over 100 speakers, but the ones I saw were particularly great included Wayne Gretzky, Troy Aikman, Michael Dell of Dell Computers, and former President George W. Bush. Bush’s speech stood out to me the most with his views on current world events. While the room we were in was pretty small and intimate, his thoughts were compelling.

The amount of information and ideas that were shared over the four days was huge, but the quality of information was even more incredible.

It was interesting to hear Wayne Gretzky compare sports to business. He joked that the biggest difference is that in business you have the “7am meeting” where in sports you work at night, basically implying that there isn’t much of a difference. With sports you have the same components as business – team, goals, communication- and the companies that function efficiently (like sports teams) are the ones who win. I found this relevant since I have always thought, as a business person, we are just like athletes in our profession. The biggest difference for me is that we don’t get a 3 month off season.

What do you think Billhighway shares with the other companies that were nominated?

Generally speaking, the companies in attendance were the businesses that are always innovating and on the cutting edge of creation. They’re constantly moving forward and coming up with new ways to move their products and businesses forward. That being said, it was nice to be in the company of these organizations because I hold Billhighway to the same standards as we move forward. It’s great to be recognized and even in on some level competing with the Groupon, LinkedIn, Red Ventures of the world. These companies are extreme game-changers of their industries, so it’s an honor to be put in the same category.

It was very interesting to talk to leaders in several different industries that all had common goals. When you think about it, most great businesses are interested in the same major areas of scalable growth, customer service as a differentiator and of course being financially viable to make an impact that reaches beyond the board room.

How has winning the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year regional award and attending the National Entrepreneur of the Year Awards event changed your goals for Billhighway? Has it made you look at things differently?

Attending the national event and winning the regional award confirmed that Billhighway is on the right path to becoming significant in our own way. Many of these companies have changed the way their industries do business and have helped a lot of others along the way. That’s exactly what Billhighway is here to do- radically help nonprofits change how their finances are managed leaving them more money and time to focus on their mission.

When you’re in the company of ridiculously successful people that take risks with their business and live without limits, it makes you take a step back and view your own company’s goal with an even brighter light. I was grateful for the opportunity to learn how our business can someday become a larger enterprise while still maintaining our core values.

Other lessons learned throughout this experience?

Companies with traditional corporate cultures seemed to be the minority, which was refreshing. It was clear that the leaders at this event loved what they do and were truly passionate about their business. I’m excited to go to future Entrepreneur of the Year Award events to continue learning and meeting great people. Next year I’m bringing more people with me!

Any advice for the winners, Jeff Weiner and Reid Hoffman from LinkedIn, as they move on to the world competition in Monaco?

My advice to them would be to treat it like a celebration, rather than a conference. Take the time to enjoy your win. You can always go back to the conference.

To learn more about the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year National Award Competition, click here.

To watch a video of the competition highlights, click here.

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Just in time for the holidays: Top 5 sorority gift ideas

11/30/2011

StarGuest blog post written by Your Sorority Sister, women’s Greek community ghost blogger.

In addition to chapter and national dues, sorority women pay hundreds of dollars each year for t-shirts, croakies, and other items that they deem worthy. Most of the time, these are not things we really need to get through the year, but rather luxuries. So what are the top 5 sorority items and gifts members and new members spend their money on?

5. Sorority Jewelry

Some girls regularly wear a James Avery sorority charm necklace (pictured above) and a lettered ring. It seems like every sorority girl has some piece of jewelry to show her affiliation. Classy and sophisticated choice.

 

4. Sorority Mascot/Color-Related Items

I wonder how many Chi Omegas and Kappa Kappa Gammas have this owl kitchen towel set from Target? As a sorority girl, I know that anytime I spot my sorority mascot or anything that I could remotely relate to my sorority, I have to have it!

3. Embroidered Clothing

If you step near a college campus (especially those in warmer climates), you cannot go five seconds without seeing a sorority girl wearing Nike Tempo shorts or ‘Norts’ in various color schemes. Some sorority stores have taken the trend to the next level by embroidering Greek letters on the shorts. These from Alpha Chi Omega are a perfect example.

 

2. Cut-out Greek Letters

We love our sororities’ letters and what they mean to us. They are great gifts for big/little reveal week, initiation, or the holiday season! There are several options online to choose for, but sometimes it is great to make them yourself to show off your creativity! These from the PerpetualPrep shop on Etsy will run you $25.99.

 

1.      Custom T-shirts

The number one item that most sorority members spend their money on has got to be t-shirts! There is a t-shirt for everything – formals, philanthropy dinners, big/lil reveal events, initiation, etc. I would say that my chapter made at least one t-shirt per month last year. And guess what? I bought almost all of them throughout the year. It seems crazy now, but chapter-personalized t-shirts, pullovers, and sweatshirts are a big deal! These from Oxford Flower and Sorority are a great example of what a lot of our t-shirts look like.

What’s on your wishlist this holiday season?

 

Your Sorority Sister is a blog created and produced by an anonymous alumna Panhellenic Sister. YSS is currently in graduate school to become a Greek Life Advisor on a university campus. All experiences are based on her participation as a member of a sorority and observations in her current job.

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Billhighway accepts “Cool Places to Work” award

11/11/2011

Financial Technology Platform awarded workplace culture honor from Crain’s Detroit Business

TROY, Mich., November 11, 2011 –Billhighway, the leader in helping nonprofit organizations and associations manage their finances online, won Crain’s “Cool Places to Work” award on November 10, 2011 at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Mich.

“Working at Billhighway for over 4 years, I’m inspired everyday by the team around me. We have worked hard to make Billhighway a special place and hope to continue to breed passion for decades to come,” said Nikki Gohlke, Finance Leader at Billhighway. “Having this acknowledgment from Crain’s is an honor to our company and a true testament to our “cool” employees.”

Crain’s “Cool Places to Work” award of Metro Detroit was determined by several workplace factors including communicating with employees, attracting talent and creating a positive environment to work. Eligible companies were from the surrounding Detroit counties of Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Washtenaw and Livingston. Winners were also featured in the September 5 issue of Crain’s Detroit Business.

About Billhighway:

Billhighway is the cloud-based platform that helps nonprofits and associations manage their finances by automating all areas of their financial lifecycle. Headquartered in Troy, Mich., Billhighway is the pioneer in bringing payment processing, online banking and accounting together in one transparent system to improve operational efficiency and financial performance. Since forming in 1999, Billhighway has processed over $5 billion in client transactions, maintains over 96% in client loyalty and has been recognized by numerous organizations, most recently from Ernst and Young as our CEO Vince Thomas received “Entrepreneur of the Year”. To learn more about Billhighway, visit www.billhighway.com.

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Billhighway will be at 1DevDay Detroit!

11/02/2011

This Saturday Nov 4, Billhighway will be attending and sponsoring 1DevDay Detroit to support the local technology and software development community.

The goal of 1DevDay is to unite the Metro Detroit Software Development community for one day of knowledge sharing, learning and exploration.  This event  is a grassroots undertaking to bring an affordable, accessible, tech conference to the Metro Detroit area.

Billhighway’s own Patrick Wilson-Welsh will be speaking at the event about best practices for Selenium RC in java. Patrick’s talk will begin at 11:30am.

Billhighway is hiring a Senior .NET Developer to add to our team. To full the full job description, visit the Billhighway job openings page at http://www.billhighway.com/careers

1DevDay Detroit will take place downtown at the Compuware Building in the auditorium at 1 Campus Martius. After the event, participants are welcome to head down to the HardRock Detroit on Compuware’s first floor.

For more information about 1DevDay Detroit and to view the schedule, visit http://1devdaydetroit.com.

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Halloween at Billhighway

10/31/2011

Celebrating Halloween at Billhighway is always full of laughs. If you are calling in to our Client Care team, you may be unknowingly speaking with Woody Harrelson’s or Wesley Snipes’s character from “White Men Can’t Jump” or Cat in the Hat. Here are some of this year’s highlights.

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Happy Halloween!

10/31/2011

 

Wishing you a safe and happy Halloween!

 

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Billhighway’s CEO, Vince Thomas, wins Crain’s “40 under 40″ award

10/07/2011

Vince Thomas, Founder and CEO of Billhighway, won the “40 under 40″ award from Crain’s Detroit given to the community’s highest achievers. The goal of the awards is to honor the best and brightest in Southeast Michigan who have made their marks in business before age 40.

Vince is highly acclaimed for his biggest achievement of helping clients save more than $100 million over the history of Billhighway.

As a small business owner in Metro Detroit, Vince is a large supporter of Michigan, the city of Detroit and surrounding areas.

“We were raised here (and) we grew up here. We are rooting for the state of Michigan to come back. We feel very fortunate that our business is doing well enough to allow us to maybe play a bigger role in helping it versus just rooting for it from the sidelines,” Thomas said.

You can read Vince’s full article here for more details.

This year’s 40 under 40 event will be held Oct. 26 at the Emagine Theatre in Royal Oak. More than 640 alumni have been invited to meet the new winners. For more information, visit Crain’s Detroit website.

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Billhighway wins Crain’s Coolest Places to Work Award!

09/19/2011

This year, Billhighway has been named one of Detroit’s “Coolest Places to Work” by Crain’s Detroit Business magazine, in partnership with the American Society of Employers.

This award is very near and dear to our hearts as our team members are what drive our company to succeed.

“Working at Billhighway for over 4 years, I’m inspired everyday by the team around me. We have worked hard to make Billhighway a special place and hope to continue to breed passion for decades to come,” said Nikki Gohlke, Finance Leader at Billhighway.

The award recipients will be honored November 10 at The Henry Ford in Dearborn, Mich.

To learn more about the Billhighway team, click here.

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