The Softer Side of Terry Zeigler

When Terry Zeigler commits to something, he goes all in. 

For 15 years, Zeigler, CEO of Datacap Systems, has been a regular presenter at the annual fall ZIPD (Zeigler Institute for Professional Development) Conference, greeting students with handshakes and sage advice on panels ranging from entrepreneurship, work-life balance, and ethics.  

In 2016, Bloomsburg alumni Terry Zeigler ’76 and his wife JoAnn Schultz Zeigler ’77, and the Zeigler Family Foundation collectively contributed the largest philanthropic gift to the Bloomsburg University Foundation to name the university’s College of Business. The gift built upon the Zeigler Institute that had been established several years earlier to help students cultivate professional skills and develop a deeper understanding of how the functional areas of business interconnect.

For the students he interacts with, Zeigler delivers his insights with his trademark combination of no-nonsense toughness and warmth. Zeigler founded Datacap Systems from the remains of a cash register manufacturer at age 28. Now the business has a footprint in nearly every retail business category, but its early years were no walk in the park.  

“Raising funds was the number one problem,” he tells students. “The founders went without a salary for 18 months.” The employees were paid. “You don’t mess with a paycheck. You’re screwing with people’s lives.”

His message: founding a business and being an entrepreneur is not for the faint of heart. “I don’t work well for other people. But you’ve got to be willing to take the risk. Not everyone is cut out for it. You have to have stamina and tenacity.”  

And he adds, your spouse or partner has to be all in as well, because you’re almost never entirely off the clock. “My work is mind share,” he says. “For example, when I’m driving, I may be thinking about an employee or client issue.” 

Zeigler’s Datacap Systems was the first company to put automated payment systems in the cash register. It was an innovation that created an opportunity and a choice. “We had a very basic decision to make. Keep being a cash register company or transition to an electronics payment interface company.” 

Zeigler navigated that fork in the road with deliberate strategy. In the transition to becoming a payments interface company, Datacap stopped marketing to new customers for registers, and over time, the registers were discontinued. “We started as a cash register manufacturer and became a payments interface developer,” he says. “We’ve made several major shifts in our 42 years.” 

The overall goal: “I want to build something that is 'repeatedly manufacturable.' That is, create a 'flywheel' that can be repeatedly sold. "

The flywheel, “payment interfaces,” at Datacap is mirrored by a flywheel he created at Commonwealth — engagement. The ZIPD program has brought hundreds of other alumni back to campus, and this November, for the first time at Lock Haven and Mansfield as well, to share their expertise with students. 

Ronn Cort ’22H, a member of the Bloomsburg University Foundation Board, is one of the industry leaders motivated to get involved in the university through Zeigler’s example. “His commitment to the students and his commitment to this school inspired me to get involved,” says Cort, president of Dunmore, a Steel Partners Company that manufactures metallized films, foils, and fabrics, and former president and COO of plastics manufacturer SEKISUI KYDEX. “Because he does it for all the right reasons. It’s always about the students.” 

“On my second or third ZIPD panel, the questions were impactful. Students are not just getting an education here, they are being prepared to contribute,” says Cort. “I know from having discussions with students who have become employees. They never feel like they’re done. They’re always learning, they’re always inquisitive. I think that comes from the ZIPD Program.”

The investment the Zeiglers made in ZIPD continues to pay dividends just as their business has.

“The greatest satisfaction is the impact we’ve had on the lives of the families of our employees,” says Terry Zeigler. “Helping people develop personal wealth while doing meaningful work in a collaborative work environment is a big deal to me.”

And today at Commonwealth, students are part of that big deal.