About Us
Our Executive Team
Meet the leadership team at Total Expert. With a combination of deep industry experience in financial services and leading enterprise software companies, this team drives the strategic initiatives at Total Expert as we continue building a category leading software company 100% focused on lending and financial services.
Leadership
Joe Welu
CEO & Founder
Joe Welu is the Founder and CEO of Total Expert, which he started in 2012 in the basement of a real estate office. Fast forward to 2019 and Total Expert is backed by some of the leading venture capital firms in Silicon Valley and has been named the fastest growing software company in the Midwest by the Inc. 500.
Sue Woodard
Chief Customer Officer
Sue Woodard brings nearly 30 years of financial services and mortgage industry experience, strategic vision and leadership to her role as Chief Customer Officer – where her focus is on helping customers achieve greater productivity and long-term success. Sue started her career at the ground level, became a top producer, then leveraged her knowledge to become a highly acclaimed industry speaker, subject matter expert and technology executive. In addition to having hosted a successful financial radio program and making guest appearances on CNBC, Sue has been awarded numerous industry honors, including the NMP Most Powerful Women in Mortgage Banking, the MPA HOT 100 list, the Housing Wire Vanguard Award, and the NMP Most Innovative Award. She also serves on the board of HOPE4Youth, a local non-profit working to end youth homelessness.
Brian Walerius
Chief Technology Officer
Brian Walerius leads Total Expert’s technology and product organizations, including software engineering, product management, and systems and security engineering. Brian joined Total Expert in November 2015 and his leadership and experience in enterprise technology has led to the quick expansion of Total Expert’s acclaimed line of marketing, co-marketing, and sales products. He has been instrumental in growing the technology and product organization. Before Total Expert, Brian served as the director of software development for an industry leading power systems application company.
Charles Wyatt
Chief Financial Officer
Charles Wyatt joined in February 2018 and serves as the company’s Chief Financial Officer, bringing over 15 years of progressive Finance and Accounting experience. Directly prior to joining Total Expert, Charles served as the Chief Financial Officer of the nation’s largest third-party property manager of single family homes. Before that, he was the Vice President of Finance at Code42, a leading SaaS company focused on endpoint backup and security. Charles also held a senior finance position at ABILITY Network, one of the nation’s leading healthcare IT companies. Charles holds a BA from California State University, and an MBA from Loyola University Chicago.
Steve Sovik
Chief Revenue Officer
Steve brings over 28 years of experience in leading and growing sales teams as Total Expert’s Chief Revenue Officer. Prior to joining Total Expert, Steve served as CRO of Tipalti Inc. where he grew revenue over 1,000% in 3 years. Prior to Tipalti, Steve served as SVP of Sales at Coupa Software where sales grew 5,000% in 6 years under his leadership (eventually leading to a successful IPO). Throughout his career, Steve has held various sales and executive management positions at Oracle, Siebel CRM, and SupportSoft. Steve holds a Bachelor of Science and Commerce degree in Decision and Information Sciences from Santa Clara University.
Peggy McGillis
SVP of Marketing
Peggy McGillis leads Total Expert’s marketing organization as Senior Vice President where she is responsible for creating customer demand and building the Total Expert brand. She has over 20 years of experience in technology and B2B industries most recently as Sr. Director of Industries Marketing at Workday. Prior to Workday, Peggy led marketing teams at SAP America as well as at other industry-leading technology organizations. Peggy has a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism from Central Michigan University and a Master’s Degree in Economics and International Politics from the University of Detroit.
Jeff Walton
President
Jeff Walton brings over 30 years experience in the banking and mortgage industries to Total Expert’s leadership team. Prior to Total Expert, Walton led several national platforms, most notably being president and CEO of Bear Stearns Residential Mortgage, and president and CEO of National Residential Mortgage. His initial interactions with Total Expert was as one of the first clients, where he used earlier versions of the product across his sales teams. Prior to the official launch of the enterprise offering, Walton announced his role as the president of Total Expert, where he focuses on growth initiatives across all solutions.
Heide Antholz
SVP of Professional Services
Heide Antholz brings 15+ years of innovative process, program management and professional services leadership to the Total Expert team. Prior to joining Total Expert, Heide was a key member of the leadership team with Maximum Solutions, a software start-up, building the business and providing support through a successful exit event. Before that Heide was the Vice President of Delivery Services at AMT Consumer Services, Inc.
Deanna Swanson
VP of People Operations
Deanna Swanson is VP of People Operations with Total Expert. Prior to joining Total Expert, Swanson held HR leadership positions with SingleHop, Chicago Fire Soccer Club and Driehaus Capital Management. She has over 15 years of experience building performance-driven teams, talent acquisition and retention, organizational development, culture change, and leadership coaching. She proudly holds a BA from Augustana College and an MSHR from Loyola University Chicago.
Mike Manahan
SVP of Banking and Credit Unions
Prior to joining Total Expert, Mike was most recently the Vice President of Relationship Management at Q2 where he was responsible for the sales, revenue growth & retention strategies for the Relationship Management organization. Prior to his time at Q2, Mike has held various sales, sales leadership, executive client relationship management, and business development roles with Intuit, Carreker Corporation (now part of Fiserv), and Diebold Incorporated. Mike has his Bachelor of Business Administration from Saint Bonaventure University.
Board of Directors
Joe Floyd
General Partner, Emergence
A General Partner at Emergence and a Kauffman Fellow, Joe’s expertise in building cloud startups has evolved from over fifteen years of advising and investing in rocketship startups like SalesLoft, project44, Mya, and more. “We strive to be a founder’s most important partner every day.” Before joining Emergence, Joe was a Senior Associate in American Capital’s technology group where he focused on investing in fast-growing internet and software companies. While at American Capital, he was involved with the team’s investments in HomeAway (Nasdaq: AWAY) and PeopleMedia (acquired by IAC). Joe was also an Associate at McKinsey & Co. in their corporate finance practice and a technology investment banker before that. Joe earned an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. While at Wharton, Joe won first place at the International Venture Capital Investment Competition. He is also a proud Cal Bear with a BA in Economics and BS in Business Administration from the University of California, Berkeley.
Jeff Hinck
General Partner, Rally Ventures
Jeff has been a venture capitalist since 1997 and has focused on early-stage business technology companies throughout his career. In 2012 Jeff co-founded Rally Ventures in partnership with Charles Beeler. As General Partners, Jeff and Charles are responsible for the firm’s overall direction in all investment and operational activities. Prior to co-founding Rally, Jeff was a General Partner with El Dorado Ventures since 2008. He co-founded Vesbridge Partners with Rally Venture Partner Zenas Hutcheson in 2004 and he started his venture career at Crescendo Ventures in 1997. Jeff began his professional career as an Engagement Manager and Consultant at McKinsey & Company. Jeff was the CEO of Sistina Software and has served as a Director on a number of company boards over his career. He has twice been the President of the Minnesota Venture Capital Association (MVCA).
Patrick Meenan
Partner, Arthur Ventures
Patrick has been a Partner at Arthur Ventures since 2014 having joined the firm as a Director in 2012. Patrick joined Arthur Ventures from Microsoft where he spent time on both the Corporate Development team executing acquisitions and investments as well as the Operations team for the Online Services Division executing business development transactions and strategic partnerships. Prior to Microsoft Patrick was on the Technology Investment Banking team at Piper Jaffray with a focus on software and services. Patrick graduated Magna Cum Laude from Miami University with a degree in Finance.
Justin Kaufenberg
Partner, Rally Ventures
Justin Kaufenberg has more than 18 years of strategic operating experience in high-technology, including deep expertise in Saas, payments, and network effect businesses. He was a Rally Technology Partner since 2015 and in October 2019 he joined the firm as Partner. Justin is responsible for sourcing and executing new investments as well as working with existing Rally Ventures’ portfolio companies to drive growth. Prior to joining Rally, Justin was CEO and co-founders of SportsEngine, one of Rally Ventures early portfolio companies. SportsEngine defined the SRM (Sport Relationship Management) market and under Justin’s lead, grew to provide its CRM and Payments platform to more than 36,000 paying customers and more than 35 million monthly unique platform users, while growing to more than 500 full time employees before it was sold to Comcast/NBCUniversal in 2016. Prior to SportsEngine, Justin was the co-founder of Third North Creative which developed CMS and E-Commerce technologies.
Joe Welu
CEO & Founder
Joe Welu is the Founder and CEO of Total Expert, which he started in 2012 in the basement of a real estate office. Fast forward to 2019 and Total Expert is backed by some of the leading venture capital firms in Silicon Valley and has been named the fastest growing software company in the Midwest by the Inc. 500.