Announcing the 2018 Major Peter J. O'Connell Lottery Lifetime Achievement Award Recipients

Andy Davis, Chief Financial & Information Systems Officer, Tennessee Education Lottery Corporation 

Andy Davis was recruited in October 2003 by the Tennessee Education Lottery Corporation to be part of the diverse and experienced executive team that led a rapid and successful start-up.

As Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Davis is responsible for planning, organizing and directing the corporation’s financial activities. This includes general accounting and reporting; accounts receivables; retailer and product accounting; budgeting and financial planning; treasury management, and purchasing activities, which include soliciting qualified minority firms to participate in the lottery’s non-major procurement bid opportunities. 

Additionally, Andy serves as Chief Information Systems Officer and is responsible for planning and directing the corporation’s information systems activities, including operational oversight of the gaming systems’ operations, electronic drawing systems and operations, in-house data processing, local and wide-area networking and telecommunications, and software planning and testing. 

Mr. Davis’ professional experience spans more than 30 years in the auditing, accounting and information systems areas. He has 24 years of lottery experience, serving 14 years with the Tennessee Education Lottery Corporation, and 10 years with the Georgia Lottery Corporation. During his tenure in Georgia, he served in varying senior management capacities, including Senior Vice President of Finance and Information Systems, Senior Vice President of Operations/Management Information Systems, Vice President of Finance and Vice President of Internal Controls. 

In 2015, Andy received The North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries (NASPL) Powers Award, given in recognition for outstanding performance by a lottery or vendor employee. 
He received his Bachelor of Business Administration Degree with a major in Accounting from Mercer University’s School of Business in Macon, Georgia. He is a licensed Certified Public Accountant.

 

Becky Schroeder, Chief Operating Officer, Idaho Lottery

Cutting-edge innovation is at the heart of Becky Schroeder’s Idaho Lottery career since becoming Information Technology Director in 1992; back when lotteries still functioned with green screens, command lines and green bar printers.  Born and raised in northern Idaho, Ms. Schroeder began her IT career in Coeur d’Alene. 

Ms. Schroeder was promoted to Deputy Director of Administration and Chief Deputy in 2007 and graduated from the nationally accredited Certified Public Manager Program the same year.  Her achievements include implementation of Scratch ticket automation in the early ‘90s - one of the first states in the industry.  An Information Technology focus was key to the successful launch of many early Scratch games with merchandise and cross promotions, negotiated directly with Hasbro, PepsiCo, Maritz and others. 

In 2007, Ms. Schroeder managed the conversion of all Idaho Lottery system functionality to new-to-the-US-marketplace gaming system vendor, Intralot, and she recently did it all again in 2017 with a new multimillion dollar Gaming System contract, featuring all new servers, data migration and a statewide upgrade of all retail equipment. 

Ms. Schroeder directed technologies used for the 2009 Special Olympic World Winter Games Scratch ticket, a North American first, where winners donated portions of their winnings to benefit these Games from the retailer terminal.  Seeing an opportunity a year ago for both a cost saving benefit for the State of Idaho and more streamlined workflow and team interaction, Becky led a headquarter lease renegotiation and directed the resulting tenant improvements, space reallocation and an entire remodel of Lottery offices in Boise.  

In 2013, Ms. Schroeder was honored to be nominated and selected as a Women and Children’s Alliance (WCA) sponsored Tribute to Women and Industry (TWIN) recipient.

The Idaho Lottery Team is proud to be nimble enough to pursue cutting edge initiatives, and brave enough to go for them!  Becky is proud to be a part of that team.

 

Gary Gonder, Chief Branding Officer, Missouri Lottery

Gary Gonder is a 27-year employee of the Missouri Lottery, where he has served in various executive roles, including Chief Branding Officer; Chief Operating Officer; Communications Director; and Interim Executive Director. During that time, Mr. Gonder was part of a dedicated team of employees who increased Lottery sales and profits from $220 million and $66 million, to $1.2 billion and $310 million, while reducing the operating percentage from 12% to 4.5%.

Before the Lottery, Mr. Gonder worked as the Director of the Missouri Film Commission, where he marketed the state as a location for feature films and commercial productions. Earlier he worked at Cunningham & Walsh Advertising in San Francisco as shipboard editor aboard the Royal Viking Sky and Star cruise ships.

Mr. Gonder has helped introduce many Lottery innovations, including founding the Missouri Alliance to Curb Problem Gambling (an industry first), which combined public, private and non-profit organizations and their resources to address education, prevention and treatment of problem gamblers in Missouri. Gary co-produced more than 300 episodes of a weekly, award-winning 30-minute “Fun & Fortune” Game Show; converted the Lottery’s mechanical draw system to computerized draws; and introduced the first My Lottery player’s loyalty program and mobile app.

Gary has served on numerous industry panels and committees, including the MUSL Powerball Automated Draws and Game Show Evaluation committees, and the Product Development subcommittee, as well as NASPL’s Continuing Education and Responsible Gaming committees. Mr. Gonder has helped host several NASPL events in Missouri and has actively presented at numerous NASPL, WLA, PGRI and La Fleur’s conferences on a wide variety of topics, including Branding, the Customer Journey, Retailer Modernization, Winner Awareness, Crisis Communications, Responsible Gaming and Underage Prevention.

Mr. Gonder hopes his legacy at the Missouri Lottery will be having led employees and stakeholders to discover the power of living the “why” in the Lottery’s purpose.

Gary holds bachelor’s degrees in advertising and photojournalism from the University of Missouri School of Journalism and a Master of Public Administration from the University of Missouri College of Business and Public Administration. Mr. Gonder is a graduate of NASPL’s first Lottery Futures College, the BC Lottery’s Erehwon Case Studies Program and is a NASPL Powers Award recipient.