About the Team

Leadership Team

Mathew Rogers, CEO

Z3 Forensics was founded by Mathew E. Rogers, a nationally recognized digital forensic expert with more than a decade of hands-on experience supporting complex criminal investigations at the local, state, and federal levels. As the Head of Digital Forensics for the Hickory Police Department and an active FBI Cyber Task Force Officer holding a current Top Secret clearance, Mathew has led hundreds of high-stakes investigations involving computers, mobile devices, network data, call detail records, and video evidence—many resulting in successful prosecutions of violent offenders and child predators.

He built the first full-service digital forensics lab in western North Carolina, dramatically reducing case turnaround times while maintaining strict chain-of-custody and courtroom defensibility standards. A certified expert across leading forensic disciplines (GCFE, GASF, CCE, Cellebrite, and more), Mathew is also a former college instructor and frequent expert witness who understands not just how evidence is recovered, but how it must be explained, defended, and trusted in court. Z3 Forensics reflects that experience—purpose-built tools, legally sound workflows, and solutions designed by someone who has lived the investigative realities end-to-end.

Clay Lowman, CTO

Clay serves as Lead Developer, Team Lead, and Agile Product Owner at Z3 Forensics, bringing more than 30 years of experience designing and delivering enterprise-grade software solutions within the financial industry—an environment where accuracy, security, scalability, and reliability are non-negotiable. With deep technical proficiency in Java, JavaScript, HTML, SQL, and Python, Clay specializes in architecting robust systems that perform under pressure while remaining maintainable and extensible over time.

A graduate of North Carolina State University with a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Clay has spent decades leading high-performing development teams and driving complex projects from concept through production. His leadership philosophy centers on technical excellence, clear communication, and disciplined execution, with a strong emphasis on Agile best practices, cross-functional collaboration, and mentoring developers at all stages of their careers.

At Z3 Forensics, Clay applies his extensive background in secure, large-scale system design to the development of mission-critical forensic software. He plays a key role in transforming investigative requirements into reliable, court-defensible tools that support Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) investigations and other high-stakes digital forensic workflows. Deeply committed to protecting vulnerable communities, Clay is driven by the belief that well-engineered technology can directly enable justice—delivering tools investigators can trust when outcomes matter most.