Based in Nashville, Tennessee, with an office in Minneapolis, Minnesota, e-Pay Innovation is a business-to-business (B2B) payments and electronic invoicing advisory practice whose objective is to help clients identify potential cost savings and realize greater efficiency within their Accounts Payable and expense management practices.  Taking a holistic approach to payments, we mine and perform in-depth analysis of a client’s payments data across all spend categories. and then recommend specific payment methods that improve processes, maximize efficiencies and reduces client’s payments-related costs.

Our preferred partnership with Comdata Corporation allows us to recommend a wide variety of innovative payment solutions that automate and monetize the collective set of accounts payable processes from purchase order to supplier payment and reconciliation. Our analytical tools and advisory processes allow clients to pinpoint operational cost savings and provide insight that can be leveraged to improve audit results through increased visibility into payments and timing, program and policy compliance.

Clay Garner, Managing Partner

Clay’s Payment Solutions Career began in 1992 when he joined American Express as a Regional Sales Manager in Charlotte, NC. Clay earned five consecutive Circle of Excellence Awards for being over 120% of quota, achieved a President’s Club award for being in the Top 5% and was the number one overall Corporate Card Salesperson in 1995.  In addition to being a top sales performer, Clay was selected to represent the entire American Express sales force on several committees whose objective was to improve the customer experience though process improvement.  One committee, “7.5 in 95” saved American Express over $4 million.

In 1999, Clay joined Concur Technologies, a global leader in electronic expense reporting software, covering a territory encompassing 5 states.  Clay worked closely with different Payment Solutions Providers to help automate their customers’ expense reporting process.  In 2002, Clay returned to the Payment Solutions industry with U.S. Bank supporting agent banks in 14 states with Purchasing and Corporate Card expertise.

In 2004, Clay returned to American Express as Manager of Business Development in National Sales providing companies with American Express’ full suite of payment solutions including Buyer Initiated Payments and Virtual Cards.  Again Clay soared to the top of the sales ranks earning Ambassador Club awards in 2006 and 2007 for a top 10% performance.  During this time Clay participated as a trainer in new hire training for sales and also mentored several new hires personally.

In 2015, Clay formed e-Pay Innovation, LLC with an objective to build an Independent Sales Organization for Comdata Corporation’s Preferred Partner Program.

David Gebert, Managing Partner

David’s career in the payment solutions industry began in 1989 when he joined American Express Canada’s Travellers Cheque Division (the precursor to today’s plastic prepaid payment solutions) with responsibility for sales and account management of all financial institutions accounts in the provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba.  In 1991, David was transferred to Canadian Headquarters in Toronto, Ontario to assume a new position managing three of the largest six banks in Canada and received a Sales Excellence Award for achieving 125% of quota prior to moving to Calgary, Alberta to assume a new sales role in the Commercial Card Group.

In 1997, David moved to the United States and joined Automatic Data Processing (ADP) as an Operations Manager for a newly acquired business in their Health and Welfare Benefits Group.  In this role he led a team of 32 individuals charged with process improvement and delivering quality service to Fortune 100 companies.  In 2000, David joined U.S. Bank as a Product Manager in their Merchant Payment Services Group with responsibility for an delivering international merchant acquiring platform to support existing airline merchant customers.

David then joined U.S. Bank’s Commercial Card Division to lead internal cross-sell and external channel partnership business development.  In this role, he received two Eagles Nest Awards for sales excellence and achieving over 117% of quota.  In 2005, David moved into the PowerTrack business line with responsibility for business development of U.S. Bank’s Electronic Invoice Presentment and Payment (EIPP) product focusing on “making a market” in the non-freight payments space.

In 2008, David returned to American Express as Senior Manager, eReceivables and was tasked with business development efforts for American Express’ Harbor Payments acquisition.  David returned to the Commercial Card space in 2010 when he joined Citi serving as a Product Sales Specialist in their Commercial Card Group with a focus on the Energy, Power and Chemicals Sector, focusing on the sales of card programs to multinational clients.  He returned to U.S. Bank in 2012 as Regional Sales Manager, ePayables responsible for EIPP and virtual payment product sales prior to joining e-Pay Innovation.

Tom Clark, Vice President, Business Development

After studying business at The University of Maryland, Tom spent 9 years in sales and Sales Management positions with several large information technology companies, including Harris Corporation (now called Unisys Corporation), where he was a consistent top producer.  Since then, Tom has focused his career on implementing cost containment and revenue enhancement opportunities for numerous Fortune 1000 companies.

Tom spent several years managing a sales team with ITM,  where his clients included AON Corporation, Timberland and RR Donnelly. He was responsible for well over half of the company’s revenues before it was sold to Profit Recovery Group.

Tom then co-founded Cost Containment Technologies where he provided cost reduction solutions to over 40 corporations, state and local governments. Over the past 10 years, Tom has owned a payment processing company, which processes payments for over 100+ companies. Throughout Tom’s career, he has always focused on compelling products/services/solutions which directly and dramatically impact his client’s profitability