Executive Team

JIM BACH, FOUNDER AND CHAIRMAN

When Jim Bach was working with cage and casino financial operations in the gaming industry, he began to realize there was a better way to do things. What started with an idea, grew into the software company NEWave. As co-founder, Mr. Bach was able to bring his ideas and innovations for automation to light, and the company instantly flourished, as casinos from coast to coast realized that Mr. Bach had found a simpler, better way to do business.

Since then, NEWave has grown to more than 25 employees with more than 250 customers served. Today, his vision has grown to an entire suite of services that many in the gaming industry say they simply could not live without.

Prior to starting NEWave, Mr. Bach spent 16 years in various administrative capacities in the gaming industry. Most notably, he was the head of financial analysis for the Tropicana (Ramada) and accounting manager at Aztar. Prior to entering the gaming industry, he started Warehouse Computer, the first discount computer store in Las Vegas, and sold it just three years later.

Before coming to Las Vegas, he worked in Front Desk, Accounting, Food & Beverage operations at the Sheraton Hotel in Boise, Idaho. Mr. Bach earned his bachelor’s degree in finance and accounting.

From his days in college, to his first hotel in Boise, to his days in finance on the Las Vegas Strip, everything has been leading to this moment at NEWave: where Mr. Bach’s vision for better business and increased profits through technology and efficiency are helping businesses to grow and flourish.

DICK FAVERO, FOUNDER

When you spend more than 50 years in the gaming business, you see and learn a lot of things. In Dick Favero’s case, he saw and learned the casino business from the front line to management, and learned there were ways a casino could do its business more efficiently and more effectively. Those decades of experience and insight led to Dick co-founding NEWave with Jim Bach in 1992, and what started as just an idea has since grown to a multi-million dollar business serving more than 200 casino customers across the United States.

Mr. Favero’s gaming experience started in 1958, when he first arrived in Las Vegas. He started as a dealer, and quickly worked his way up the ranks to box man, floor man, shift manager and ultimately as casino manager for the Tropicana, where he met Jim Bach. In 1985 he was employed by Palace Station, and for the next 23 years he worked as shift manager, casino manager and director of player development, retiring in 2008.

Mr. Favero and Mr. Bach both left the Tropicana close to the same time in 1984 and, while they founded competing computer retail businesses, they remained friends. In the early 1990s, Mr. Bach approached him about starting a new company that would combine their decades of knowledge of casino operations and software, bringing automation and efficiencies to casinos.

Mr. Favero’s gaming career started as a short vacation to see family in Las Vegas in 1958. Since his first job as a dealer, his love of working with customers and employees has transformed the industry, leaving a permanent mark of increased efficiencies and bottom line revenue for casinos from coast to coast. NEWave and its customers have benefitted from Mr. Favero’s vast experience and deep-rooted business values of putting the customer first, making the customer a partner and attention to detail and quality.

TOM BECHTEL, CHIEF OPERATIONS OFFICER

Tom Bechtel knows the cash transaction side of the casino industry from the inside out, literally, having begun his career working inside the vault at the Sands Regency in Reno. Since then, Mr. Bechtel’s career has flourished; rising quickly to serve in management positions in cage operations at prominent casinos. Now as COO of NEWave, he benefits the company’s clients daily with his firsthand experience, working together with clients to help them save time and money while increasing their peace of mind.

In his time at NEWave, Mr. Bechtel has increased staffing from eight employees and contractors to more than 30. He has also designed new products, including new software for casino cages that enable them to balance electronically with fewer audit findings. He has also worked with casino personnel to develop software that streamlines operations across the entire casino, including audit, cage, compliance, slots and table games.

Mr. Bechtel brings the benefit of 17 years of firsthand gaming experience to NEWave. Prior to NEWave, he was Cage/Credit Manager for the Palms Hotel/Casino in Las Vegas, where he implemented new software for cage and check cashing. He has also served as Cage/Credit/Slot Club Director for Showboat/Castaways Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, where he created new procedures that dramatically cut paperwork and increased efficiencies.

Additionally, he opened the Empress Riverboat Casino in Joliet,IL, Hollywood Casino in Aurora,IL, Players Club in Metropolis,IL, Casino Aztar in Caruthersville, MO, and Vacation Village in Las Vegas, NV.

CLAIR F. ROGERS, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, SALES

For more than 30 years, Clair F. Rogers has been at the forefront of operations and sales specializing in casino gaming and hospitality. He is a highly successful and motivated professional sales executive, skilled at building partner-level relationships and selling vastly complex value-added solutions to high level decision-makers within the casino gaming industry.

As Senior Vice President of Sales at NEWave, Mr. Rogers leads the company’s sales employees and channel partners in helping create innovative and specialized solutions for the company’s clients and business partners across North America.

Prior to joining NEWave, Mr. Rogers provided consultative venue-wide system sales to commercial, river boat and tribal casino operations around the world. He has spent the last 15 years in sales with companies such as IGT, Acres Gaming and Gaming Systems International.

Mr. Rogers is a second-generation gaming executive and learned the hospitality industry from the ground up, starting as a courier and bartender at Nevada Club in Laughlin, NV. He parlayed his ambitions and experience into a new role as Food and Beverage Director at Paddlewheel Hotel and Casino and later as Director of Slot Operations at Casino Royale, both in Las Vegas. He has also served as VP and General Manager at Papone's Palace in Central City, CO, and spent more than five years with Sheraton Corporation in various leading management roles.

Always an industry leader, Mr. Rogers was one of the first operators to implement floor-wide Bonusing solutions in the early 1990s.

Mr. Rogers is an avid UNLV Rebel basketball fan, having graduated from the university with a Bachelor of Science in Hotel Administration degree in 1979.

LON JEROME, VICE PRESIDENT, CUSTOMER SUPPORT

Casino industry veteran and IT expert Lon Jerome is NEWave’s Vice President of Customer Support. In this key position in the organization, Mr. Jerome directs NEWave’s customer support operations, including call support.

Mr. Jerome is widely considered to be one of the industry’s foremost gaming IT experts, and his more than 20 years of experience are a tremendous benefit to NEWave and to the company’s clients.

Mr. Jerome’s experience is the product of a perfect blend of his time spent in-casino as well as his time with casino management companies. Most recently, he served as Director of Information Technology at the Golden Gate Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. Other in-casino experience includes terms as Director of Information Technology at Speedway Casino in North Las Vegas, Executive Director of Information Technology at Cannery Casino Resorts in Las Vegas, and as Vice President of Information Technology/Safety at Grand Casino Coushatta in Kinder, Louisiana.

He has also served key IT roles in casino management companies, including Keystone Gaming Group and Grand Casinos Inc., overseeing IT strategy at multiple properties in multiple states.

Mr. Jerome graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Organizational Management/Business Communications degree from Concordia College, and he also holds an Advanced Business Communications Technology degree from Alexandria Technical College.

He is a proud lineal descendant of Pembina Chippewa, Turtle Mountain Agency, in Belcourt, N.D.

MICK CONSTANTINO, VICE PRESIDENT OF PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

Gaming industry IT expert Mick Constantino is NEWave’s Vice President of Professional Services.

In his role, Mr. Constantino spearheads NEWave’s professional services division, overseeing the company’s national training and implementation teams as well as directing the company’s project coordination.

Prior to his time at NEWave, he was Director of Program Management for Gaming and Marketing Systems at Caesars Entertainment Corp. Prior to Caesars Entertainment, he served as Solutions Director of Casinos Systems for MGM Resorts International, and he has also worked with Harrah’s Atlantic City and the Trump Organization.

Mr. Constantino’s experience also extends to the supplier side of the industry. He was Director of Professional and Technical Services for Bally Technologies, where he was directly responsible for implementing enterprise applications for all process of casino and slot operations.

He has dedicated his entire professional career to IT, holds the ITIL Foundation Certification and is a member of the Project Management Institute. He earned a BS degree from the University of Scranton and an MS degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

He is based in NEWave’s headquarters in Las Vegas.

DON MILLER, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT OF SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT

Microsoft-certified senior application developer and gaming industry IT expert Don Miller is NEWave’s Executive Vice President of Software Development.

Mr. Miller is a seasoned senior application developer who specializes in design and development of business integration systems. He has more than 20 years of IT experience in software design and programming, hardware integration, enterprise system design and project research. He is also co-inventor of U.S. Patent No. 7,690,043, “System and method for connecting gaming devices to a network for remote access play.”

Prior to NEWave, Mr. Miller had an extremely successful turn as Principle Consultant for Neudesic, where he led teams consulting directly with client business partners and developed software to meet their needs.

Previously, he was Director of Software Development for Las Vegas Sands Corp., where he defined and implemented practices and infrastructure to reduce software development risks and improve software quality, and wrote all standards for documentation for the .Net team.

He has also served terms as Senior Software Engineer for the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino, where he developed prototype and production applications integrating iSeries resources to .Net web interfaces. He has also served as Sr. Database Administrator for the Sands Expo Convention Center. Additionally, he has served as IS Director for Legal iGaming Inc., as Sr. Application Programmer for Mikohn Gaming Inc., and as Application Programmer for Station Casinos.

Mr. Miller is based in NEWave’s headquarters in Las Vegas.