Executive Team – Alphabetical Order
John Bizeau, EVP, Operations
John Bizeau brings 24 years of recovery audit experience. He has been responsible for audits for many of the largest retailers in the United States including Walmart and Kroger.
Prior to ATG, John was Senior Vice President for Retail Operations with APEX Analytix. In this position, he was directly responsible for the success and growth of APEX Analytix retail technology and audit solutions. While APEX was moving in the direction of helping retailers internalize recovery audits, John realized that ATG’s approach was more cost effective and better addressed client needs.
Prior to APEX, John served as Vice President and Managing Director with PRG-Schultz, where he managed major accounts in the company’s Central US Region. As a senior operations manager, John had the responsibility for revenue budgeting and expense control. He also served on corporate steering committees for audit tool development and best practices.
John began his career as a Senior Auditor with Robert Beck and Associates in 1992. With the company’s acquisition by PRG-Schultz in 1999, John’s role grew to National Audit Director, where he was responsible for five audit offices across the United States. In 2000, John joined Ernst and Young to take on a new business development opportunity, then returned to PRG a year later.
John earned both his Bachelor’s degree and MBA from Ashland University. He resides in Indianapolis with his wife, Shawnna, and their two children.
Vince Creadon | President
Vince Creadon is a founding partner and CEO of ATG. Vince was previously a Senior Vice President of Business Development for PRG-Schultz International, Inc.. In this role, he was responsible for all North American new and existing sales revenue. Vince directed the company’s sales executives and account managers. He was instrumental in developing strategic business initiatives for PRG.
Prior to joining PRG-Schultz, Vince was a Principal with Robert Beck & Associates, Inc., the premiere niche provider at the time of computer-supported accounts payable audit recovery services. Initially hired to provide marketing support and direction, Vince quickly assumed operational responsibility for the Midwest region. He developed the area into one of the company’s most productive regions.
Before entering the accounts payable audit recovery industry, Vince was Vice President of Sales & Marketing for Baker, Knapp & Tubbs, the premiere manufacturer and distributor of residential and executive office furniture. Vince was a key member of the company’s executive management team responsible for directing all sales and marketing initiatives. Prior to this, he was General Manager of Mastercraft Furniture Company with full profit and loss accountability for this multi-plant operation.
Vince earned his BBA degree in Marketing & Economics and MBA degree with a Finance concentration from Cleveland State University. Vince and his wife, Linda, have two children and reside in Chicago.
Paul Dinkins | EVP & Chief Marketing Officer
Paul Dinkins brings 3 plus decades of experience to the Avantis Partners executive team working with large retailers, grocers, Fortune 500 Companies and Government Agencies. His experience includes:
· 11 years of retail management consulting
· 23 years of retail and government agency recovery auditing
· The last 5 years building ATG’s transaction data analytics services and joint venture with Topco Associates.
Paul is a recognized recovery audit industry expert and was called multiple times to provide Congressional testimony on recovery audit for Federal Agencies culminating in passage of the “Improper Payments Act” of 2002. This ACT requires Federal Agencies to undertake recovery audits to identify and recovery overpayment to suppliers of goods and services. Additionally, Paul was instrumental in the development of the Medicare recovery audit demonstration program, the success of which resulted in a nationwide program expansion.
Paul began his career in merchandising for a major retail chain for two years before joining Senn-Delaney Management consults assisting retailers to improve performance in finance, distribution and store operations. Paul reached Partner level and took advantage of the opportunity to sell the company to Arthur Anderson in 1992, at which time he joined PRG-Schultz as Executive Vice President of worldwide marketing and sales. Paul was instrumental in the acquisition and relationship management of clients throughout North America, South America and Europe as well as six US government agency clients that produced $800,000,000 in fee revenues during his tenure.
In 2007 Paul joined Audit Technology as EVP of Marketing and sales and has been instrumental in growing and leading the company to new value channels. Today, ATG is a purchasing transaction data science company providing near real-time procure-2-pay transaction data assimilation powering cloud based monthly recovery audits and on-demand vendor performance and trade fund analytics that use data driven insights to power fact based vendor negotiations.
Paul received his BA degree from the University of Pittsburgh. He is an instrument rated pilot and avid off-shore fishing enthusiast. Paul, his wife and son reside in northern Colorado.
John Kirkeide | EVP Operations & CFO
John Kirkeide joined ATG as a Partner when ATG merged with his company, Audit Excellence. John’s two decades of retail procure-to-pay and finance experience coupled with 16 years of recovery audit experience produce exceptional results for his clients. John is responsibility for our Midwest operations.
John was previously Vice President of Audit Development for PRG-Schultz International, Inc.. In this role, he developed systemic approaches to leverage technology across a very large client base including a high percentage of the nation’s largest retail audit engagements.
Prior to joining PRG, John was a Principal with Robert Beck & Associates, Inc., a premiere niche provider of computer-supported accounts payable audit recovery services. John was a recovery audit industry pathfinder who leveraged advanced technology across clients to increase recovery and reduce cost.
Before entering recovery auditing, John was Chief Financial Officer for LeeWards Creative Crafts, Inc., now part of Michaels Stores, Inc. John led the management buy-out of LeeWards from its previous owner. Prior to joining LeeWards, he held a variety of financial positions with General Mills and Ernst & Young in Minneapolis.
John received a BBA degree in Accounting from Moorehead State University and a BS degree in Business and MS degree in Business Economics from North Dakota State University. He maintains both a CPA and CMA, receiving recognition for achieving the nation’s top CMA exam score in 1978. John and his wife, Leslie, reside in Prescott, Arizona.
Jack Martin | EVP, Operations
Motivated by ATG’s technology to advance audits close to the transaction and provide the technology for use by internal recovery audit teams, Jack Martin joined ATG as a Partner in 2005. He is responsible for the company’s Eastern region. Jack is an established industry veteran with 27 years of operational and managerial experience within the Recovery Audit industry. Jack has had great success helping ATG clients build internal recovery audit teams that significantly outperform the primary audit and advance closer to the transaction.
Prior to joining ATG, Jack was Vice President and Managing Director for PRG-Schultz responsible for managing key retail, commercial and federal and state government audits. Preceding the PRG-Schultz acquisition of Robert Beck & Associates, Jack managed numerous East Coast accounts and was heavily involved in Robert Beck & Associates’ early initiatives of incorporating advanced technology into the recovery auditing process.
The audits Jack has managed over the past 26 years have generated hundreds of millions of dollars in previously unidentified revenue for his clients. Equal to his personal satisfaction of this recovered revenue, Jack takes pride he takes in the relationships he has developed with clients, their vendors and other industry professionals.
Prior to entering the audit industry, Jack spent his early career in retail operations for Sears, Roebuck & Company. Later, he joined LeeWards Creative Crafts where he supervised the company’s store operations in the central United States.
Jack graduated from Columbus State College in 1968 and most recently completed an Executive development course through the Goizueta Business School at Emory University. He has two children, 5 grandchildren, and resides with his wife, Tana, in Ocean Pines, Maryland.
Jeff Shanley |EVP, CIO
Jeff Shanley brings 26 years of recovery audit industry experience and is a founding partner of ATG. As our Chief Information Officer, he is responsible for ATG’s Information Technology infrastructure and proprietary software development. Jeff is a uniquely talented individual and a rare commodity in the recovery industry because he is equally skilled in IT, purchase-to-payment systems and audit methodologies. Since entering the industry, Jeff has focused his efforts on directing audit support, electronic tool development and enhancing audit productivity. Jeff is the chief architect of ATG’s breakthrough “Web Audit Tools” that provide the only alternative to conventional post annual auditing.
Jeff has extensive recovery audit experience. In 1987, Jeff joined the recovery audit firm of Robert Beck & Associates, Inc. (now PRG-Schultz, International, Inc.) and was an industry pioneer migrating manual paper based audit reviews to sophisticated software-based reviews. These efforts helped position RBA as an industry leader in both audit services and technology. Jeff’s development of electronic applications dramatically transformed the audit process allowing audit professionals, without IT programming experience, to run highly sophisticated queries and complex audit routines.
Previously, Jeff was Senior Vice President, Information Technology of PRG-Schultz, Chief Information Officer of Robert Beck and Associates and Chief Information Officer of Howard Schultz and Associates. Prior to his recovery auditing career, Jeff was the Accounts Payable Manager for a leading Midwest retailer where he gained valuable experience in purchase-to-payment systems.
Jeff has a BS degree in Mathematics from the University of Pittsburgh.
Key Operations Management
Chuck Andrade | Director of Shared Services
Chuck Andrade brings 18 years of commercial and retail auditing experience to the ATG team. Chuck is recognized as a subject matter expert in the areas of duplicate payment and statement auditing as well as escheatment avoidance. Chuck’s vendor outreach teams are known for their diligence, attention to detail, and vendor relation skills. Chuck’s team know recoveries are important, but maintaining positive vendor/client relations by minimizing vendor abrasion is key.
Chuck was Director of Operations for PRGX from 1999 until 2013. He was instrumental to creating and developing the statement audit process which remains in effect today. Chuck has lead more than 100 unique recovery efforts including duplicate payments, statements, and escheatment avoidance, as well as many fee-based vendor outreach assignments.
Prior to joining ATG Chuck worked as a Regional Investigator for a large retail chain investigating fraud and working with various law enforcement agencies to reach meaningful resolutions. This background brings a unique perspective of forensic data review to our industry
Chuck is a motorcycle and boating enthusiast who resides with his wife in Northern Florida.
Chip Rodgers | VP of Business Development
With more than two decades of experience with software, data, analytics, and professional services, Chip has worked with clients as diverse as the Federal Reserve Bank, General Motors, Southwest Airlines, the Downtown Orlando Development Authority, Adventist Midwest, and Mission Health on solutions for their technical and strategic needs. Chip’s experience has centered on identifying areas of need, and then crafting solutions that include the appropriate mix of people, process, and technology.
Prior to joining Audit Technology Group, Chip spent nearly 12 years working with clients to use data, analytics, and modeling in commercial real estate planning, first with Buxton and then with national real-estate advisory firm Retail Strategies. After successfully selling IT consulting services for much of the 1990s and early 2000s, Chip joined his former client, Buxton, as a Territory Manager and was ultimately named SVP in the sales group responsible for assisting retailers, municipalities, economic development organizations, and health care providers/systems to use analytics and SaaS in the development of growth strategies to include real estate planning, recruitment, client/patient acquisition, and market optimization programs.
Chip has been a featured speaker at many retail and development conferences including a prominent role over several years providing new member orientation at RECon, the International Council of Shopping Centers’ annual conference attended by 35,000+ retail professionals.
Chip is a past Chapter President of the Oklahoma State University Alumni Association, and an active member of the Moslah Shrine Temple. With his wife, Lisa, the couple have chaired several regional events raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for the Shriners Hospitals for Children. Chip, his wife, and two children reside in Fort Worth, but in their spare time, spend as much time as possible at their Texas Hill Country ranch, Los Robles.
Bob Beck | VP Operations
Bob Beck brings 26 years of recovery audit experience to ATG. He has led recovery audits at many of the largest retailers in the United States. He was motivated to join ATG after seeing how we were using unique and innovative technologies to capture audit opportunities in near real time. Bob’s technical skills, coupled with his in-depth knowledge of the procurement-to-payment cycle, enable him to produce superior results for his clients.
Prior to joining ATG, Bob, co-founder of Beck Financial, LLC., Bob was responsible for bringing management consulting services to small and medium size businesses in the areas of technology, operations and process efficiencies. He brought significant expertise in the areas of IT integration and process improvement through the use of technology to his clients.
Prior to Beck Financial, Bob was Director of Audit Development with PRG-Schultz. In this role, he developed systemic approaches to leverage technology across a very large client base including all of the largest retail audit engagements in the company’s Central and Eastern U.S. Regions.
Bob was a Principal with Robert Beck and Associates until they were acquired by PRG. He was responsible for major accounts in the South Central U.S., including two of the nation’s top five retailers. In this role, Bob oversaw all sales and operational activity, working directly with his client’s to better enhance the audit experience and maximize recoveries throughout his region.
Bob began his career in the audit recovery industry as a Senior Auditor with Robert Beck and Associates in 1987 after spending many years in the retail grocery industry with Jewel Food Stores, Inc. He earned his Bachelor’s degree from Elmhurst College.
Bob resides in Fort Mill, South Carolina with his wife, Sue, and their four children.
Rick Taylor | VP Audit Services
Rick Taylor brings 21 years of recovery audit experience to our tam. He is a founding partner responsible for audit operations in the Southeast.
Rick has broad experience across retail formats, with strong grocery experience gained by serving the largest grocery chain. Rick has developed many of the grocery audit routines that are now industry standards. He constantly makes inroads to new areas of overpayment error and recovery for his clients.
Prior to joining ATG, Rick was Senior Vice President of Operations for PRG-Schultz. In this role, he was responsible for the company’s primary accounts in the Southeast directing a group of regionally based audit managers. Rick consistently developed forward thinking business initiatives for his region that enabled them to meet or exceed their company objectives. He joined PRG from Robert Beck & Associates, where he served as Principal of Southeastern operations. In this role, Rick oversaw all sales and operational activity, personally handling all aspects of client relationship management. Through his hands-on approach, Rick developed this area into one of the company’s largest regions in terms of clients and revenue.
Before entering the recovery audit industry Rick was President and Chief Operating Officer of United Computer Services, a software development and service provider company, and Vice President, Controller for Harris Teeter.
Renee Tinoco | Audit Director
Renee Tinoco brought 17 years of retail recovery audit experience to ATG in 2011. Renee is responsible for audit oversight and client satisfaction on several regional grocers and one home improvement retailer.
Prior to joining ATG, Renee was Director of Client Services at PRGX. In this role, she was responsible for overseeing key account client strategy for the Western region. She built stronger client relationships and expanded services in Analytics and Advisory Consulting. Prior to PRGX, Renee served as Audit Manager for the Orange County, California audit center. Under her direction, she supervised a 10 person staff who increased recoveries 200% over two years for eight regional grocers and retailers. Renee began her career as a staff auditor for Howard Schultz & Associates in 1998 after spending many years in the marketing department of a major defense electronics company.
Renee resides in Orange, California with her husband, Carlos. Together they have two grown daughters. Renee graduated from MTI Business School in Santa Ana, California